You would have thought with having an earlyish night we would have been bright and chipper in the morning. Well you'd be wrong. I awoke sometime near 7, whilst most others were a little later. Or a lot.
When we are overseas, I'm a little task master like. I know we have a lot to do, and only a short space of time to do it in, so I get the whip cracking to get it all done. Apart from the fact that I wake up early normally, I don't like sitting around. So when Zoe decided to take her sweet time getting up and ready, we all got a bit annoyed. We had arranged to meet downstairs at 9am, so when she isn't ready at 9.50 and we are all starving, none of us were very happy.
Today we were off to Shibuya and Harajuku. Specifically, we wanted to show Zoe the cool boot shop in Shibuya, but also some of the interesting bits of Harajuku. After getting such a late start, we made our way to Shinagawa station which was to be our start point every day. We got a day tripper ticket, as our JR Passes had run out, and once getting inside, we grabbed breakfast at one of the cafes there. They did a decent coffee as well as breakfast, but I can't remember what is was, so it mustn't have been anything too special.
After jumping on the Yamanote line to Shibuya, we set out from the station. I'll often look at maps that are on the side walk to get my bearings, but this morning it was like they were made of magnets, because the way they told me to go had me thrown off. We walked around for about 10 mins, before we realised we weren't going in the correct direction, then headed in the direction we thought. When we came across the Donki, I knew we were about 3 blocks west of where we wanted to be, so pointed us in the direction my internal gps was telling us. Dean was thinking we had to go the other way, but fortunately I told everybody to wait, while I went and confirmed where we were/which way to go. Problem was, I was feeling drained with me needing vitamins or water or both, so once I had us in the vicinity of where we needed to be, I let the others guide for a little while. We decided to forgo the Uniqlo down the side street of Parco, as there are Uniqlo's everywhere. A quick pit stop in the Parco building, with a look around of the book shop in there and we were on our way. We could have gone to Shibuya 109, a building that houses the bleeding edge of the latest fashions, but with the late start and time ticking away, we canned that and went to the boot shop instead.
Frontier Shibuya as the store is actually known has some really cool boots. However, I don't really care, as I'm male and don't need 20 pairs of shoes, and neither did Dean or Paul. So we gave stuff a cursatory glance, before heading back outside. The owner of the shop was being weird, following the girls around, but not in a friendly "Can I help you with anything?" way. I remember he was like this last time as well, so perhaps he has a boot fetish, and this is his collection and he doesn't actually want to sell any of them.
We headed back towards the station via the Disney store. As much as Disney bores me, you have to give it to them for their attention to detail. The shop was similar in decor to what you'd find at Disneyland, with all the fittings suitably chosen. After we had quickly pottered around there, we headed back to the station and jumped on a train for Harajuku.
On every trip of ours, we've been here. We usually go to Kiddy Land in Omote sando first, before working our way back. We did that this time as well (although we did stop for lunch at an Indian restaurant first), and with Kiddy Land being refurbished, it had even more floor to ceiling of cute. We bought stuff, looked around, searched for each other about 4 times, before we were done and ready to move on. We next intended to head around the corner to UT, the shop where we get the shirts in the cans. We walked up Meiji-dori a bit, before stopping at the Audi dealership. It definitely wasn't this far up last time, so I asked a bike courier, who said the shop was no more! Another thing designed to thwart us....
We headed back towards Takeshita-dori (see previous blogs), and decided to leave the girls and go look at stuff for ourselves. We went to a few places that had toys and classic merchandise and stuff, before heading up the street to Jeans Mate. One thing I dislike about Japan is my size. I'm only slightly above average height here, but I'm more portly than the average Japanese male, so finding stuff that fits is hard. With my grey coat looking a little forelorn (I've had it 10 years or so), I wanted to get another one, but the ones I like the look of made me look like I was wearing stuff 3 sizes too small. So I abandoned that idea. Dean and Paul also saw stuff they liked the look of, but Paul needed permission from the missus about a shirt he liked, but Dean didn't think suited him, and Dean fitted most things, but wasn't really grabbed by anything except a brown coat.
We head a little further, grabbing a crepe to keep our energies up, before we decided we were done and went back to meet up with the girls. I need to use the loo, so I went to one in the building where we had left them. Who should I see coming out of the toilets but mum! They were still in the same building where we had left them... This was going to be a long afternoon.
After we all had met up, we walked back up the street towards Daiso 100Y shop. I didn't need anything, but with Zoe liking all the cheap knick-knacks and stuff, they looked around before meeting us back out side. It was getting on to 5:30pm on a Friday evening, and once we were all done (I did end up finding a nice coat at Jeans mate that fitted will), we headed up to the train station. Most of the time we use the subway system, but with our home station being a JR station it was easier to get around. Too bad, the Yamanote line has 3.7 million passengers a day, because at 6pm on a Friday evening, it seemed like every single one was on the trains. We lined up for one, but it was too packed, so we stayed at the front row waiting for the next one. People were packed in like sardines, when this weirdo girl (a wannabe asian, LBH whitey) tries to stuff herself onto the train with a couple of immovable boxes/bags. Needless to say she looked like an absolute fool, before deciding to get the next train. We got the next one and through we were all together, we were all together. It was rather squashy and the only time I've experienced it in our 5 trips over there. When it came time for us to get off (only 2 station later because we had to change lines mind you) Paul and I tanked our way out cutting a path for everyone to follow.
The next train wasn't nearly as squashy with some of us finding seats. Our next port of call was Tokyo station. After a day of walking, we all felt like a massage, as well as trying a few things in Liquors Hasegawa. We booked a massage each, but it was about half an hour to 45 mins wait for the next spot, so we pottered around, I tried some scotches that looked interested, before we went and sat down waiting for our turn. Paul must have been bored, because he didn't get a massage and with all of us lying on our faces, he wouldn't have had anyone to talk to. The massage was great, and the girl worked the knotted muscles around my spine, as well as a small portion of time on my feet, but I was feeling rather refreshed. Whitney and Mum weren't really hungry, Paul had already eaten and with a lot of places being full, we decided to grab some McDonalds (oh the humanity), and head back towards our hotel.
We arrived back safe and sound, eating ice cream and baileys, and having a beer as well, before everyone decided to turn in around 9.30pm. I noticed we've been watching a lot less TV this time, with no memorable ads getting stuck in our heads. But time to get some sleep... It's been a long day today.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Let's Up! Or something
It's hard work thinking on the fly so much. With our group consisting of 6 people, we constantly have to make adjustments to the plans, depending on tiredness, whether we've spent too much time in a certain place and are running behind time or if things just don't want to be open as was the case yesterday (well, Wednesday.. I'm writing this on Sunday).
This morning we had planned on doing car stuff with Paul. Dean and I awoke at our usually time and decided to go for a walk around the area. In comparison to the yucky surroundings in Dobutsuen-mae, Shinagawa/Takanawa is the Ritz. In the place of hobos and drunkards at 6.30 in the morning, we had quiet surroundings, and the streets furnished with respectable buildings and fancy cars. It was just quiet mostly residential buildings though so nothing really out of the ordinary to see. We did spot a couple of places to eat and a few vending machines, but headed back to the hotel.
We had organised to meet everyone in the lobby at 9am, but with us running around yesterday, Zoe and Paul didn't wake up until 8:30, whilst Whitney was a leisurely 8:45. We were still all ready to go by 9:30 though, so with Up Garage not opening until 11:00, it didn't put us behind that much. We decided to go around the corner and see if either Aux Brucelles or Edelweiss was open. Only the bar was open, so we decided to give Edelweiss a try. Edelweiss is a boulangerie in the Grand Prince New Takanawa, so if we had decided to go here to start with, we could have just gone through the gardens rather than the long way around the block, but we weren't decided yet. While it was nice enough, you were paying more because it was at a Prince (just like at the snow).
After some pancakes, we were on our way. It was decided that Mum and Whitney should just come with us, as it's easier to leave them near the train station, rather than trying to organise to meet them somewhere. After jumping on the Yamanote line to Shibuya, we switched to the Den-en-toshi line. The train out to Up Garage takes about 45mins if it stops at all stations, so we settled in for the ride. It's sort of good, as you get to see parts of Tokyo that you wouldn't ordinarily see, and it gave us a seat, something that's in short supply in this city.
We made it out there and after a short walk to the real Route 246, we were at Up Garage. I would love this place if I had the money and I was doing up my car to keep, but we were here for Paul mainly. After walking around for a while looking at various parts and translating, we came across a couple of R33 GTR turbos. Paul is going to turbo his vitara and this would have been ideal, but we weren't sure if they would fit the manifold he's getting, so we decided against them. He did get a deep dish steering wheel for 4500Y, so that was a good thing, but I felt like I'd let the team down, as we'd come all this way and it didn't have all the stuff he'd wanted. After grabbing lunch in a mall near Aobadai station, we headed back. We nearly left Zoe at the station as we rushed to catch an express train that was just arriving, but we made it, and headed back towards Shibuya, before catching a train up to Shinjuku then another to Nakano. It was slightly annoying coming here again, after yesterday's failed effort, but it's only 3 stops or so from Shinjuku, so not that far out of the way.
We made a b-line for the mall, and headed to Robot Robot. We've been there and usually it's chock full of Star Wars stuff, but they seemed to be down this year, as they had opened another two shops in Nakano mall, as well as a new shop in Akihabara. Oh well, we weren't to know, but again, I felt like I was sliding as a guide. Zoe did find some Powerpuff Girls stuff in the other Robot Robot shop, and Whitney got some K-On stuff from one of the various otaku places there.
It was now getting on in the afternoon and we still wanted to see Odaiba, as well as head to Super Autobacs at Wangan, so after getting the train to Shimbashi, via Tokyo station, we got on the Yurikamome line to Odaiba. This is a private "railway" (it runs on tyres and has no driver) so is a bit more expensive than either the Metro subways or JR Lines, but either it or the Rinkai (another private line) are the only railway to go to Odaiba. Yurikamome is cool though because it does a 270-degree up spiral before crossing the Rainbow bridge.
It would have been pointless dragging Mum and Whitney to more car stuff, so we left them at one of the Odaiba stations, before heading on to Ariake. According to Google Maps, it would be roughly 250m walk from Ariake station to Super Autobacs, but it wasn't. It took us about 20 mins to walk, but my internal compass served us well and we got there without any major dramas. Paul looked for a boss kit for his new steering wheel, as well as the Snap-On key holders (makes it look like you've got a Snap On screw driver jammed in your lock). We couldn't find either, so I asked one of the attendants, and he found out that they had been discontinued.. Big jobs. This was to be another annoying day... We looked around for a while longer, but we were getting too hungry, so we headed back to Odaiba to meet mum and Whit.
They hadn't explored much, as they were cold and hungry, but they had found a buffet place, so we went there for dinner. The food was ok, but as with most buffets, it's not going to be the absolute best quality, but still quite edible. The toilets were something else though. With Sega Joypolis being in the same building, the mens urinals had games, where the amount and aim of your urine could either make you beat some guys or fill a cistern or something.. didn't make much sense, but it was cool and I've never seen it before.
After we were all done we started to head back, before I spotted a KTM X-Bow, something we don't get in Australia. It must have been a promo shoot, as they also had the new KTM 1198 RC with it. I got a few shots, but everyone was getting cold and tired (Odaiba is on the water), so we headed back to the hotel.
We were planning on staying up a little tonight, but with everyone so wrecked, we go to bed earlyish, ready for another day.
This morning we had planned on doing car stuff with Paul. Dean and I awoke at our usually time and decided to go for a walk around the area. In comparison to the yucky surroundings in Dobutsuen-mae, Shinagawa/Takanawa is the Ritz. In the place of hobos and drunkards at 6.30 in the morning, we had quiet surroundings, and the streets furnished with respectable buildings and fancy cars. It was just quiet mostly residential buildings though so nothing really out of the ordinary to see. We did spot a couple of places to eat and a few vending machines, but headed back to the hotel.
We had organised to meet everyone in the lobby at 9am, but with us running around yesterday, Zoe and Paul didn't wake up until 8:30, whilst Whitney was a leisurely 8:45. We were still all ready to go by 9:30 though, so with Up Garage not opening until 11:00, it didn't put us behind that much. We decided to go around the corner and see if either Aux Brucelles or Edelweiss was open. Only the bar was open, so we decided to give Edelweiss a try. Edelweiss is a boulangerie in the Grand Prince New Takanawa, so if we had decided to go here to start with, we could have just gone through the gardens rather than the long way around the block, but we weren't decided yet. While it was nice enough, you were paying more because it was at a Prince (just like at the snow).
After some pancakes, we were on our way. It was decided that Mum and Whitney should just come with us, as it's easier to leave them near the train station, rather than trying to organise to meet them somewhere. After jumping on the Yamanote line to Shibuya, we switched to the Den-en-toshi line. The train out to Up Garage takes about 45mins if it stops at all stations, so we settled in for the ride. It's sort of good, as you get to see parts of Tokyo that you wouldn't ordinarily see, and it gave us a seat, something that's in short supply in this city.
We made it out there and after a short walk to the real Route 246, we were at Up Garage. I would love this place if I had the money and I was doing up my car to keep, but we were here for Paul mainly. After walking around for a while looking at various parts and translating, we came across a couple of R33 GTR turbos. Paul is going to turbo his vitara and this would have been ideal, but we weren't sure if they would fit the manifold he's getting, so we decided against them. He did get a deep dish steering wheel for 4500Y, so that was a good thing, but I felt like I'd let the team down, as we'd come all this way and it didn't have all the stuff he'd wanted. After grabbing lunch in a mall near Aobadai station, we headed back. We nearly left Zoe at the station as we rushed to catch an express train that was just arriving, but we made it, and headed back towards Shibuya, before catching a train up to Shinjuku then another to Nakano. It was slightly annoying coming here again, after yesterday's failed effort, but it's only 3 stops or so from Shinjuku, so not that far out of the way.
We made a b-line for the mall, and headed to Robot Robot. We've been there and usually it's chock full of Star Wars stuff, but they seemed to be down this year, as they had opened another two shops in Nakano mall, as well as a new shop in Akihabara. Oh well, we weren't to know, but again, I felt like I was sliding as a guide. Zoe did find some Powerpuff Girls stuff in the other Robot Robot shop, and Whitney got some K-On stuff from one of the various otaku places there.
It was now getting on in the afternoon and we still wanted to see Odaiba, as well as head to Super Autobacs at Wangan, so after getting the train to Shimbashi, via Tokyo station, we got on the Yurikamome line to Odaiba. This is a private "railway" (it runs on tyres and has no driver) so is a bit more expensive than either the Metro subways or JR Lines, but either it or the Rinkai (another private line) are the only railway to go to Odaiba. Yurikamome is cool though because it does a 270-degree up spiral before crossing the Rainbow bridge.
It would have been pointless dragging Mum and Whitney to more car stuff, so we left them at one of the Odaiba stations, before heading on to Ariake. According to Google Maps, it would be roughly 250m walk from Ariake station to Super Autobacs, but it wasn't. It took us about 20 mins to walk, but my internal compass served us well and we got there without any major dramas. Paul looked for a boss kit for his new steering wheel, as well as the Snap-On key holders (makes it look like you've got a Snap On screw driver jammed in your lock). We couldn't find either, so I asked one of the attendants, and he found out that they had been discontinued.. Big jobs. This was to be another annoying day... We looked around for a while longer, but we were getting too hungry, so we headed back to Odaiba to meet mum and Whit.
They hadn't explored much, as they were cold and hungry, but they had found a buffet place, so we went there for dinner. The food was ok, but as with most buffets, it's not going to be the absolute best quality, but still quite edible. The toilets were something else though. With Sega Joypolis being in the same building, the mens urinals had games, where the amount and aim of your urine could either make you beat some guys or fill a cistern or something.. didn't make much sense, but it was cool and I've never seen it before.
After we were all done we started to head back, before I spotted a KTM X-Bow, something we don't get in Australia. It must have been a promo shoot, as they also had the new KTM 1198 RC with it. I got a few shots, but everyone was getting cold and tired (Odaiba is on the water), so we headed back to the hotel.
We were planning on staying up a little tonight, but with everyone so wrecked, we go to bed earlyish, ready for another day.
Friday, February 22, 2013
Getting the hell out of Dodge
With everyone well and truly over Osaka, everyone was up for getting the hell out of Dodge, and as soon as possible.
I had my alarm set for 4.55, but my body in anticipation decided to sake up at 4 o'clock, a truly hideous time to be up at.
After unplugging my laptop and various things attached that had finished charging, I packed everything else that I needed to away, which wasn't much as we had done most things the night before. Dean was a little slower getting up though, but as all we had to do is get from Dobutsuen-mae to Shin Osaka before 6.08, it wasn't that bad. After getting everyone ready, we walked around the corner to the subway station. Fortunately, there were no drunks or hobos lying on the pavement this time, as I didn't really want to be greeted by that sight first thing in the morning.
We got a subway and got to Shin-Osaka with about 30 mins to spare. So while everyone else was grabbing maccas (It was early and there was nothing else around, is my excuse), I got everyone else's rail passes and headed upstairs to book the tickets. One thing I found good, was that even at 5.30 in the morning, the staff didn't drag their heels. I had about 5 people in front of me, and it still only took a minute or so to get the tickets before heading back to meet the others.
I quickly ate a hash brown (still tastes yuck, even in another country), before directing everyone to the correct platform. We still had a little time to spare, so we ate the rest while waiting. The wind was a bit nasty as well. It wasn't blowing fiercely, but it was still quite cold so we found ourselves a windbreak or huddled together after eating.
It didn't take long before the shinkansen arrived, and we were all safely on board. It was the first train of the day, so there wasn't many people on, which made maneuvering baggage between the seats a lot better. Soon we were all sat down, ready for the next 3 hours. I still reckon that bullet trains are a fairly civilised way to travel. The seats are comfier than smaller passenger planes, the toilets easier to stand up in, and the drinks are cheaper (110Y for water, 250Y for beer). I listened to music most of the way, while catching up with Monday and Tuesday's blogs. Zoe slept, as did Mum and Paul, while Whitney and Dean played games or something.
We had to stop a few times and let the Nozomi trains leap frog us (they only stop at 3 or 4 stations, compared to our 8), but this just meant the driver had to crank it to make sure we were on time, so between Shizuoka and Shin-Yokohama, he had the thing wide open, cracking along at 300km/h or so.
We arrived at Shinagawa at around 9, and was immediately taken in by the size of the station and the amount of people. Not only has Shinagawa got the bullet train platforms, it also has numerous local lines running through it including the Yamanote line, which by itself moves about 3.7 million people a day. This meant at 9am on a Wednesday morning, there were people going everywhere to get to work, and you sort of had to pick your line and march through the throngs. At least we were back in Tokyo though, with Paul commenting that the air smelt fresher here.
First thing to do was to get to the hotel and dump our bags. We couldn't check in just yet, but so we dumped them there (must have bewildered a few of the young staff) before making our way down to Tully's for a decent coffee to wake Zoe up (she's not an early riser).
The plans for the day had changed a couple of times, and with so much to do and so little time to do it in, I had to keep reworking it all to get it done as efficiently as possible. For starters, we would head to Tokyo station. Whitney wanted to get her hair cut at the salon she usually goes to in Yaesu Mall. This would also be a chance for Paul and Dean as well. Paul was dared by his wife to get a funky hair cut, while Dean was looking like Jackie Stewart (legendary F1 racer), with his cap covering his head and a shaggy mane out the back.
Following that, we dragged Zoe to Liquors Hasegawa, where we tried a few things. We shared them around. Mum hated the special Lagavulin I tried, which I wasn't that into myself, I liked the 20yo rum she tried and we had a couple of tries of various calvados, cognac and other things. Once we had met up with Whitney, who had left to go check out the japanese Lush items, we made our way back to Tokyo station (after getting some food on the way). I wanted a crepe as well, but there seems to be none in Tokyo station now, so Dean and I shared a hot dog, as we weren't that hungry yet.
The next point of attack was Robot Robot in Nakano "Broadway" mall, which has a plethora of Star Wars merchanidise, along with other movies and series. We were still using our JR passes, as they didn't expire til Thursday, so after getting on the JR Chuo rapid line, we were there about 20 mins later. We walked up the covered street that leads to the mall (fortunately we have done this a couple of times, so Dean lead for a little while), but we seem to have been thwarted again. Yesterday, it was Abeno Q's being closed, today it was Nakano Broadway. What else??
Despondently we headed back to Shinjuku, before switching to the Yamanote line and heading for Ikebukuro. Whitney wanted to go to a cat cafe, where you can play with cats and stuff. From my googling, I new that there was one on the top level of Tokyu Hands in Ikebukuro, and with us wanting to go to Namja Town for food that evening, it was a good way to combine 2 things in one.
After getting there and navigating through the throngs of people, we soon made our way to the Tokyu Hands building, next to Sunshine City. Dean, Paul and I had no intention of sitting around patting kitties, so we made our way outside and downstairs to the B1 floor of Sunshine City. And lo-and-behold, there was a crepe place, staring us right in the face. Not wanting to let this opportunity slip (we've done that in the past and not found them again), the 3 of us ordered crepes and were happy. It would still be a while before Whitney was finished patting cats, so we found and arcade or two and played a game of Initial D 4th Stage and some Wangan Midnight as well. They have some crazy cool arcade games here in Japan, and quite a few of them now use the cards as saved games. There was a cool Gundam one, with foot pedals and hand controls and all, but I didn't get to play that, as well as crazy dancing games. It's gone beyond Dance Dance revolution, it's more towards no buttons, just follow the movements. There was also quite a few bemani games, with various DJ games, and this weird cube one, where you tap and match about 16 squares in front of you.
After playing, we quickly looked in Book Off, before heading back to meet the girls just as they were getting out of Nekobukuro. I found somewhere to sit, because even though they had finished patting, women have an inordinate way of making something simple (shopping) turn into an ordeal for guys. After they were finally finished, we made our way downstairs and out.
Namja Town is a food "theme park" where you can get various gyoza, and other things from various sellers trying to vie for honours. Our favourite gyouza that used to be in Yaesu is here, so we were really keen to get eating. But what's this? Another closure??? I asked a wandering security guard who said that Namja Town is closed for Summer Renovation. You've got to be kidding me!!! By this stage we were all famished, as we had a light lunch in preparation, so we walked around a corner to where some food places were. Dean was still in gyouza mode, so we stopped at a restaurant that had them. It looked chinese in my mind (but seeing as that's where gyouza originated, we'll allow it), but they had a few other things people wanted, so we sat and ate. I found it a little greasy, but we were starving so it didn't matter.
By now we were all tired. It was getting on to 6.30 and we still need to check in to our hotel, so after jumping on the yamanote train (Ikebukuro is nearly at the diagonally opposite end to Shinagawa) we had a 28 min train ride to get back towards the hotel. By this stage, I was getting pretty tired. I usually do, as we always walk a lot, as well as having to think/plan/organise on the fly gets tiring.
We got back to the hotel and checked in. The hotel is the Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa, and is on the same grounds as the Prince Sakura Tower and Grand Prince New Takanawa. Combined, they are a 4-star hotel, but this is the oldest building I'd say. Still immaculately clean and well presented, it reeks of old money. It's got gardens, shared between the 2 other hotel buildings, and there seems to be quite a flow of people, business or otherwise staying here. It also has the prices to match, so even though we got the rooms for 40% off, the restaurants and such are still quite expensive.
The room is nice. I'd think it's slightly larger than our one at Takahan, but the TV is bigger, there are nice beds (I've slept a treat the last couple of nights) as well as a desk, some comfy chairs and LAN internet available. After we'd made ourselves comfy, it was all over for the night. We watched some TV (well movie "The girl with the pearl earring"), before it got to about 9 and I was fully knackered. With tomorrow being another busy day in Tokyo, a good sleep was needed.
I had my alarm set for 4.55, but my body in anticipation decided to sake up at 4 o'clock, a truly hideous time to be up at.
After unplugging my laptop and various things attached that had finished charging, I packed everything else that I needed to away, which wasn't much as we had done most things the night before. Dean was a little slower getting up though, but as all we had to do is get from Dobutsuen-mae to Shin Osaka before 6.08, it wasn't that bad. After getting everyone ready, we walked around the corner to the subway station. Fortunately, there were no drunks or hobos lying on the pavement this time, as I didn't really want to be greeted by that sight first thing in the morning.
We got a subway and got to Shin-Osaka with about 30 mins to spare. So while everyone else was grabbing maccas (It was early and there was nothing else around, is my excuse), I got everyone else's rail passes and headed upstairs to book the tickets. One thing I found good, was that even at 5.30 in the morning, the staff didn't drag their heels. I had about 5 people in front of me, and it still only took a minute or so to get the tickets before heading back to meet the others.
I quickly ate a hash brown (still tastes yuck, even in another country), before directing everyone to the correct platform. We still had a little time to spare, so we ate the rest while waiting. The wind was a bit nasty as well. It wasn't blowing fiercely, but it was still quite cold so we found ourselves a windbreak or huddled together after eating.
It didn't take long before the shinkansen arrived, and we were all safely on board. It was the first train of the day, so there wasn't many people on, which made maneuvering baggage between the seats a lot better. Soon we were all sat down, ready for the next 3 hours. I still reckon that bullet trains are a fairly civilised way to travel. The seats are comfier than smaller passenger planes, the toilets easier to stand up in, and the drinks are cheaper (110Y for water, 250Y for beer). I listened to music most of the way, while catching up with Monday and Tuesday's blogs. Zoe slept, as did Mum and Paul, while Whitney and Dean played games or something.
We had to stop a few times and let the Nozomi trains leap frog us (they only stop at 3 or 4 stations, compared to our 8), but this just meant the driver had to crank it to make sure we were on time, so between Shizuoka and Shin-Yokohama, he had the thing wide open, cracking along at 300km/h or so.
We arrived at Shinagawa at around 9, and was immediately taken in by the size of the station and the amount of people. Not only has Shinagawa got the bullet train platforms, it also has numerous local lines running through it including the Yamanote line, which by itself moves about 3.7 million people a day. This meant at 9am on a Wednesday morning, there were people going everywhere to get to work, and you sort of had to pick your line and march through the throngs. At least we were back in Tokyo though, with Paul commenting that the air smelt fresher here.
First thing to do was to get to the hotel and dump our bags. We couldn't check in just yet, but so we dumped them there (must have bewildered a few of the young staff) before making our way down to Tully's for a decent coffee to wake Zoe up (she's not an early riser).
The plans for the day had changed a couple of times, and with so much to do and so little time to do it in, I had to keep reworking it all to get it done as efficiently as possible. For starters, we would head to Tokyo station. Whitney wanted to get her hair cut at the salon she usually goes to in Yaesu Mall. This would also be a chance for Paul and Dean as well. Paul was dared by his wife to get a funky hair cut, while Dean was looking like Jackie Stewart (legendary F1 racer), with his cap covering his head and a shaggy mane out the back.
Following that, we dragged Zoe to Liquors Hasegawa, where we tried a few things. We shared them around. Mum hated the special Lagavulin I tried, which I wasn't that into myself, I liked the 20yo rum she tried and we had a couple of tries of various calvados, cognac and other things. Once we had met up with Whitney, who had left to go check out the japanese Lush items, we made our way back to Tokyo station (after getting some food on the way). I wanted a crepe as well, but there seems to be none in Tokyo station now, so Dean and I shared a hot dog, as we weren't that hungry yet.
The next point of attack was Robot Robot in Nakano "Broadway" mall, which has a plethora of Star Wars merchanidise, along with other movies and series. We were still using our JR passes, as they didn't expire til Thursday, so after getting on the JR Chuo rapid line, we were there about 20 mins later. We walked up the covered street that leads to the mall (fortunately we have done this a couple of times, so Dean lead for a little while), but we seem to have been thwarted again. Yesterday, it was Abeno Q's being closed, today it was Nakano Broadway. What else??
Despondently we headed back to Shinjuku, before switching to the Yamanote line and heading for Ikebukuro. Whitney wanted to go to a cat cafe, where you can play with cats and stuff. From my googling, I new that there was one on the top level of Tokyu Hands in Ikebukuro, and with us wanting to go to Namja Town for food that evening, it was a good way to combine 2 things in one.
After getting there and navigating through the throngs of people, we soon made our way to the Tokyu Hands building, next to Sunshine City. Dean, Paul and I had no intention of sitting around patting kitties, so we made our way outside and downstairs to the B1 floor of Sunshine City. And lo-and-behold, there was a crepe place, staring us right in the face. Not wanting to let this opportunity slip (we've done that in the past and not found them again), the 3 of us ordered crepes and were happy. It would still be a while before Whitney was finished patting cats, so we found and arcade or two and played a game of Initial D 4th Stage and some Wangan Midnight as well. They have some crazy cool arcade games here in Japan, and quite a few of them now use the cards as saved games. There was a cool Gundam one, with foot pedals and hand controls and all, but I didn't get to play that, as well as crazy dancing games. It's gone beyond Dance Dance revolution, it's more towards no buttons, just follow the movements. There was also quite a few bemani games, with various DJ games, and this weird cube one, where you tap and match about 16 squares in front of you.
After playing, we quickly looked in Book Off, before heading back to meet the girls just as they were getting out of Nekobukuro. I found somewhere to sit, because even though they had finished patting, women have an inordinate way of making something simple (shopping) turn into an ordeal for guys. After they were finally finished, we made our way downstairs and out.
Namja Town is a food "theme park" where you can get various gyoza, and other things from various sellers trying to vie for honours. Our favourite gyouza that used to be in Yaesu is here, so we were really keen to get eating. But what's this? Another closure??? I asked a wandering security guard who said that Namja Town is closed for Summer Renovation. You've got to be kidding me!!! By this stage we were all famished, as we had a light lunch in preparation, so we walked around a corner to where some food places were. Dean was still in gyouza mode, so we stopped at a restaurant that had them. It looked chinese in my mind (but seeing as that's where gyouza originated, we'll allow it), but they had a few other things people wanted, so we sat and ate. I found it a little greasy, but we were starving so it didn't matter.
By now we were all tired. It was getting on to 6.30 and we still need to check in to our hotel, so after jumping on the yamanote train (Ikebukuro is nearly at the diagonally opposite end to Shinagawa) we had a 28 min train ride to get back towards the hotel. By this stage, I was getting pretty tired. I usually do, as we always walk a lot, as well as having to think/plan/organise on the fly gets tiring.
We got back to the hotel and checked in. The hotel is the Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa, and is on the same grounds as the Prince Sakura Tower and Grand Prince New Takanawa. Combined, they are a 4-star hotel, but this is the oldest building I'd say. Still immaculately clean and well presented, it reeks of old money. It's got gardens, shared between the 2 other hotel buildings, and there seems to be quite a flow of people, business or otherwise staying here. It also has the prices to match, so even though we got the rooms for 40% off, the restaurants and such are still quite expensive.
The room is nice. I'd think it's slightly larger than our one at Takahan, but the TV is bigger, there are nice beds (I've slept a treat the last couple of nights) as well as a desk, some comfy chairs and LAN internet available. After we'd made ourselves comfy, it was all over for the night. We watched some TV (well movie "The girl with the pearl earring"), before it got to about 9 and I was fully knackered. With tomorrow being another busy day in Tokyo, a good sleep was needed.
Osaka? No U-saka
Today was to be our last full day in Osaka. In the tourist info brochure we got at the hotel, it said there was a 2.6km long shopping street with delicatessens and stuff which Mum had wanted to check out. Whitney and Zoe wanted to go to Spa World, while Paul felt like doing washing and veging out for the morning. With the Spa World ticket lasting 3 hours, the plan was to meet back up at 1.30 and head to the Umeda Sky Building, with the Floating Gardens Observatory. The forecast was for rain in the morning turning to cloud in the afternoon. Perfect time to be in a covered shopping street.
After getting a day ticket and getting to the station, it was a quick walk to Ten-something-or-other area. It was right near where the meeting was on Sunday, so at least it wasn't totally foreign. Dean, Mum and I walked from half-way along to the northern end, before making our way back down the 2.6km long stretch. There were numerous massage parlours, shoe shops and ramen/soba/udon places, but not the delicatessens we were expecting. Mum had hoped it would be like the market area in Kyoto where they had weird things like glazed fruits, soy tea and other things, but this place was very much in keeping with Osaka, a big let down. We walked and walked, and I think there was still a couple more sections to go, but we had seen the same chain of massage places and drug stores about 5 times, so with time getting away, we decided to cut it short, jump on the subway and head back towards the hotel.
Whitney and Zoe had already arrived back before us, after being packed in mud and going in waterfall baths and stuff. They had enjoyed it, but it was now time to do something different. Paul had been by himself most of the morning, but started voicing what we were all thinking, "we are all dissapointed with Osaka and want to go back to Tokyo". Truth be told, even though we had already paid for our accommodation, Paul and I would have both taken the hit to wallet, if we could have headed back that afternoon/night. But with Zoe pooh-poohing that idea, we started making plans to leave very first thing that morning.
We still wanted to see the floating gardens, so we headed out to Umeda. After a quick look around Yodobashi Camera (while some of us used the facilites), we headed out to get our bearings. My inbuilt sat-nav was needing recalibrating, but after a quick look at a map on the street we knew which way to head and went in the right direction. We made it to the Umeda Sky Building about 15 mins later, and found our way up the tower. The lift from the 3rd floor to the 37th is a glass elevator, so Whitney was getting a little freaked out, but the lift was quite quick. Next it was onto the escalators, which take you from Level 37 to 39, over nothing. It's all enclosed, which was good with the wind being quite cold, but to go onto the full observatory, looking out and around the city, you had to pay700Y, and with what we had seen so far from the glass elevator being unimpressive, we decided to forego that experience. It turns out there was no gardens (well not that we could see) anyway, it was just named after Laputa, the floating gardens/castle from Gulliver's Travels. We headed back down to the basement as there was supposed to be a recreated 1920's/30's street down there, and it looked ok, but it was cold and everytime someone went outside, a gust of cold wind blew in.
We were getting tired (well I was), so the plan was to head to Abeno-Q's to potter, get some dinner then head back to the hotel to pack up our stuff for an early morning trip. Wouldn't you know it, it's closed on this particularly day. Just a random day to be closed, (perhaps they were all doing stock take or something), but it meant that I once again had been thwarted in my attempt to have another crepe. After wandering around some of the mini-malls near it which were open to keep out of the cold, we headed back to the subway station to get a train back to the hotel. We made a brief stop at a pastry/bread place (a la Bread Top), where we grabbed some mini-pizzas and stuff which would have to suffice as dinner, then via the Family Mart for some Ice Cream.
We ate, drank and got ourselves ready for the early morning train. The earliest shinkansen we could get was 6:08, which meant that we had to get the subway from our hotel at 5.20ish to give ourselves enough time get tickets and such. So lights out at 8.30, before I awoke early at 4am.
Been to Osaka, don't recommend going there again.
After getting a day ticket and getting to the station, it was a quick walk to Ten-something-or-other area. It was right near where the meeting was on Sunday, so at least it wasn't totally foreign. Dean, Mum and I walked from half-way along to the northern end, before making our way back down the 2.6km long stretch. There were numerous massage parlours, shoe shops and ramen/soba/udon places, but not the delicatessens we were expecting. Mum had hoped it would be like the market area in Kyoto where they had weird things like glazed fruits, soy tea and other things, but this place was very much in keeping with Osaka, a big let down. We walked and walked, and I think there was still a couple more sections to go, but we had seen the same chain of massage places and drug stores about 5 times, so with time getting away, we decided to cut it short, jump on the subway and head back towards the hotel.
Whitney and Zoe had already arrived back before us, after being packed in mud and going in waterfall baths and stuff. They had enjoyed it, but it was now time to do something different. Paul had been by himself most of the morning, but started voicing what we were all thinking, "we are all dissapointed with Osaka and want to go back to Tokyo". Truth be told, even though we had already paid for our accommodation, Paul and I would have both taken the hit to wallet, if we could have headed back that afternoon/night. But with Zoe pooh-poohing that idea, we started making plans to leave very first thing that morning.
We still wanted to see the floating gardens, so we headed out to Umeda. After a quick look around Yodobashi Camera (while some of us used the facilites), we headed out to get our bearings. My inbuilt sat-nav was needing recalibrating, but after a quick look at a map on the street we knew which way to head and went in the right direction. We made it to the Umeda Sky Building about 15 mins later, and found our way up the tower. The lift from the 3rd floor to the 37th is a glass elevator, so Whitney was getting a little freaked out, but the lift was quite quick. Next it was onto the escalators, which take you from Level 37 to 39, over nothing. It's all enclosed, which was good with the wind being quite cold, but to go onto the full observatory, looking out and around the city, you had to pay700Y, and with what we had seen so far from the glass elevator being unimpressive, we decided to forego that experience. It turns out there was no gardens (well not that we could see) anyway, it was just named after Laputa, the floating gardens/castle from Gulliver's Travels. We headed back down to the basement as there was supposed to be a recreated 1920's/30's street down there, and it looked ok, but it was cold and everytime someone went outside, a gust of cold wind blew in.
We were getting tired (well I was), so the plan was to head to Abeno-Q's to potter, get some dinner then head back to the hotel to pack up our stuff for an early morning trip. Wouldn't you know it, it's closed on this particularly day. Just a random day to be closed, (perhaps they were all doing stock take or something), but it meant that I once again had been thwarted in my attempt to have another crepe. After wandering around some of the mini-malls near it which were open to keep out of the cold, we headed back to the subway station to get a train back to the hotel. We made a brief stop at a pastry/bread place (a la Bread Top), where we grabbed some mini-pizzas and stuff which would have to suffice as dinner, then via the Family Mart for some Ice Cream.
We ate, drank and got ourselves ready for the early morning train. The earliest shinkansen we could get was 6:08, which meant that we had to get the subway from our hotel at 5.20ish to give ourselves enough time get tickets and such. So lights out at 8.30, before I awoke early at 4am.
Been to Osaka, don't recommend going there again.
Storm the fort
We awoke to the sound of rain in the morning, and that was to be the soundtrack to the day. We had planned on going to Umeda to the observatory (high lookout, rather than astronomy thingy), but with the rain beating down we thought against it. Instead, we decided to do the equally daft thing of visiting Osaka castle.
We went to the Family Mart around the corner from the hotel first to get us some umbrellas, then down into the subway where we bought a day pass. (Osaka's subway is more expensive than Tokyo's). We went one station before jumping off at Tennoji, so we could grab some coffee and breakfast from Tully's. It wasn't quite open yet, (it was only 8.30), so we went and made use of the facilities, before the doors opened and we sat down. The cappucino was a good strength, better than the horrid drip-filter coffee I had in the lobby of the hotel.
Once we were all caffeined up, we headed outside to Abeno station which runs parallel with the street next to the mall. It was rainy and cold, so the only thing we could do was to keep moving, all the while the wind blowing rain onto our feet. We arrived at a subway station on the southwest side of the castle. As there wasn't that great information, I didn't know where the entrance was, so we didn't know which side to invade from. We ended up just following the signs, which took us up the western side of the walls and moat, to the bridge, then we headed south again, before making a turn east. By now the coffee and tea had effected everyone, so after a quick pit-stop, we went inside the gates. I wasn't sure what to expect, as when we went to Nijo Castle in Kyoto last year, before you even got inside you had to pay. After going inside the walls, we looked at the souvenir shops, before deciding to grab some lunch at the restaurant things there. As with most places here, they didn't try to capitalise heaps on captive audiences. I got a big lunch set of rice, pork, salad, miso soup & daikon radish pickles for 1000Y and a large medium beer for 350Y.
Once we were less grumbly (It was still cold and rainy), we made our assault on the tower. We're not the first to do so apparently, as it has been burnt down and rebuilt a couple of times. To get into the actually tower which was the residence is 600Y, but rather than being like the main residence inside Nijo castle where they've kept it the same as it was, this one is a museum with paintings, artifacts and screens with little scenes being displayed semi-holographicly (Think "Help me Obi-wan, You're my only hope"), but once we had walked the 6 levels or so and seen all the stuff, we had to formulate another plan.
One of the sisters at the meeting had told us Honmachi was the place to go for food and clothes, so on here advice, this is where we went next. The "mall" we came out of was nestled under the expressway pilons, with two narrow corridors populated by small shops and eateries. We must have differing ideas about what makes for good shopping, because the clothes shops were small little places run by great-grandmothers, with clothes that smelt as old and dusty as they were. The eating places were smokey, pokey little udon joints, which we could have found anywhere in town. We left that mall for a street that looked more promisiing, and as we made our way down, it was a little better. Still not much varience from a lot of the places we had visited in Osaka so far, but better than smelling of mothballs.
We walked some way down this before we started getting hungry again, as it had been about 4 hours since our last meal, and we had done a bit of walking since. It got to the stage of being hungry where you can't think properly, so we decided to stumble into Shakey's. A lot of places in Japan can be deceptive, because the opening was fairly narrow, but once up the stairs, it opened out to a whole level. We got a table for 6 in the non-smoking section, which was seperated from the smoking section by a few walls and about 10 metres distance, meaning we could at least enjoy a meal without some douchebag smoking near us.
Shakey's is an all-you-can-eat chain. You pay 990Y and you can have all the pizza, pasta, salad and vegetables you want. And for another 500Y you can get an all you can drink for 60mins. This isn't just soft-drink, but also tap beer, wine, chu-hai, sours, and I think they may have had basic spirit mixers as well, though I just stuck to the beer. I ate a decent amount of pizza, but not enough to make myself sick. Really though, the pizza was free, because I drank 3 glasses of beer, which at most places are about 4-500Y each anyway. We stayed for a little longer than the 60mins just because we had a place to sit, and we had to wait for the food and beer to go down. It was now around 8pm, so we were all getting tired, after spending the day walking around, so we headed back to our hotel, where Dean, Paul, Zoe and I played a game of golf (cards), but it ended up getting late, so we turned in for the night.
We went to the Family Mart around the corner from the hotel first to get us some umbrellas, then down into the subway where we bought a day pass. (Osaka's subway is more expensive than Tokyo's). We went one station before jumping off at Tennoji, so we could grab some coffee and breakfast from Tully's. It wasn't quite open yet, (it was only 8.30), so we went and made use of the facilities, before the doors opened and we sat down. The cappucino was a good strength, better than the horrid drip-filter coffee I had in the lobby of the hotel.
Once we were all caffeined up, we headed outside to Abeno station which runs parallel with the street next to the mall. It was rainy and cold, so the only thing we could do was to keep moving, all the while the wind blowing rain onto our feet. We arrived at a subway station on the southwest side of the castle. As there wasn't that great information, I didn't know where the entrance was, so we didn't know which side to invade from. We ended up just following the signs, which took us up the western side of the walls and moat, to the bridge, then we headed south again, before making a turn east. By now the coffee and tea had effected everyone, so after a quick pit-stop, we went inside the gates. I wasn't sure what to expect, as when we went to Nijo Castle in Kyoto last year, before you even got inside you had to pay. After going inside the walls, we looked at the souvenir shops, before deciding to grab some lunch at the restaurant things there. As with most places here, they didn't try to capitalise heaps on captive audiences. I got a big lunch set of rice, pork, salad, miso soup & daikon radish pickles for 1000Y and a large medium beer for 350Y.
Once we were less grumbly (It was still cold and rainy), we made our assault on the tower. We're not the first to do so apparently, as it has been burnt down and rebuilt a couple of times. To get into the actually tower which was the residence is 600Y, but rather than being like the main residence inside Nijo castle where they've kept it the same as it was, this one is a museum with paintings, artifacts and screens with little scenes being displayed semi-holographicly (Think "Help me Obi-wan, You're my only hope"), but once we had walked the 6 levels or so and seen all the stuff, we had to formulate another plan.
One of the sisters at the meeting had told us Honmachi was the place to go for food and clothes, so on here advice, this is where we went next. The "mall" we came out of was nestled under the expressway pilons, with two narrow corridors populated by small shops and eateries. We must have differing ideas about what makes for good shopping, because the clothes shops were small little places run by great-grandmothers, with clothes that smelt as old and dusty as they were. The eating places were smokey, pokey little udon joints, which we could have found anywhere in town. We left that mall for a street that looked more promisiing, and as we made our way down, it was a little better. Still not much varience from a lot of the places we had visited in Osaka so far, but better than smelling of mothballs.
We walked some way down this before we started getting hungry again, as it had been about 4 hours since our last meal, and we had done a bit of walking since. It got to the stage of being hungry where you can't think properly, so we decided to stumble into Shakey's. A lot of places in Japan can be deceptive, because the opening was fairly narrow, but once up the stairs, it opened out to a whole level. We got a table for 6 in the non-smoking section, which was seperated from the smoking section by a few walls and about 10 metres distance, meaning we could at least enjoy a meal without some douchebag smoking near us.
Shakey's is an all-you-can-eat chain. You pay 990Y and you can have all the pizza, pasta, salad and vegetables you want. And for another 500Y you can get an all you can drink for 60mins. This isn't just soft-drink, but also tap beer, wine, chu-hai, sours, and I think they may have had basic spirit mixers as well, though I just stuck to the beer. I ate a decent amount of pizza, but not enough to make myself sick. Really though, the pizza was free, because I drank 3 glasses of beer, which at most places are about 4-500Y each anyway. We stayed for a little longer than the 60mins just because we had a place to sit, and we had to wait for the food and beer to go down. It was now around 8pm, so we were all getting tired, after spending the day walking around, so we headed back to our hotel, where Dean, Paul, Zoe and I played a game of golf (cards), but it ended up getting late, so we turned in for the night.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Sunday, bleeding feet, Sunday
After a relatively late night of 11pm, I still woke up at 6am. This gave me time to walk around the area, but I didn't stay out long. With this being a poor/lower working class area, I didn't really feel that comfortable being out, as I prefer not to get asked for money. I'd like to be able to say "I worked hard and saved my money just to afford this holiday, and you think I should just give you it for free?", but my Japanese isn't good enough for that, so I just say "I don't understand". I went to a local convenience store and grabbed some shaving gel, a notepad and pen and crumbed chicken thingy, before heading back to our hotel.
I had to recheck the meeting time, and it was an earlier 2pm (not the 4pm I thought), as well as get directions on how to get there. Once this was burnt into my memory, I had a shower and a shave and got myself mostly ready. The idea this morning was to go to Umeda, get some breakfast, walk around for a while, before heading to the meeting. It would mean I was in my new meeting shoes pretty much all day, and while I'd have preferred my skate shoes, they weren't too bad.
In Umeda there is the Floating Gardens observatory and a recreated old town scene, but as Dean had forgotten to bring his DSLR, we decided to just potter around the area, rather than go searching for it. We got some breakfast (well, nearly brunch) at an Italian-esque cafe, but with a toasted panini and good coffee, I didn't care if they mixed up their Italian, French and Japanese names. Once we had all stopped the hungry grumbles, we started looking around. It's sort of hard to get your bearings underground, so after looking briefly at a gashapon area (toy capsules), we headed up onto the street. I pointed us roughly in the direction of the Kingdom Hall, hoping we'd find something interesting along the way. We found another mini-mall nestled below the expressway (good use of space) which had Kiddy Land in it. This one was nowhere near as well stocked or laid out as the one in Harajuku, but it gave us something to look at. Before long, it was getting time for lunch (amazing how shopping centres can just suck time like that), so we started looking for somewhere to eat. There was a few places with indistinguishable menus, but we eventually came upon a bagel place. We sat down and ordered some bagels, and I got a BLAT that didn't scrimp on the bacon. It was tasty and filling and would keep us going until well after the meeting.
By the time we'd finished, it was getting on close to 1pm. I had estimated with my head's GPS that we were about 1km as the crow flies from the Hall, so we set off in the direction my head told me. We got there nearly bang on 1.30, and the place was fairly empty. One of the brothers told us that most people don't arrive until 1.55, which is just as well, because the hall, like most Japanese halls is tiny. We met quite a few people. It seems for the English congregations in Japan, there usually a couple of native english speakers, whether from UK, North America, or Australia and NZ, a few from other nationalities (west african, russian, brazilian) that speak better english than Japanese, but the majority being Japanese brothers and sisters helping where there is a need.
It was great to be at a meeting, as you miss it when you aren't there. It's also great to be able to walk into a hall anywhere in the world and immediately have 50-100 friends. A youngish Japanese brother, married to an Indian sister gave the talk. The outline was "Follow the Course of Hospitality", a talk that I've given before, but the beauty of an outline is that each speaker develops the theme individually. I knew the main scriptures that needed to be used, but the information the brother used was different to what I chose.
We stayed after the meeting and chatted to the local brothers and sisters. Some, whose English wasn't as good, thanked us for our comments, while others wanted pictures and chatted about where to go for food and stuff in Osaka.
Following that we walked towards Ogimachi, where one of the brothers said there was a street lined with food (we didn't find it). We stopped off at the Kids Park briefly, then went to Baskin Robbins for an ice cream fix. While there we were trying to decide on the next course of action. We decided to go to Dotonbori, an area famous for its neons and eateries (it's an entertainment area, with lots of karaoke places). We got there, and after spending an eternity in Book Off, we made our way to the main street lined with food stalls, selling takoyaki, yakitori and other street foods. By this stage we were getting to the "too hungry to think" stage, so we went up to one that looked cheap and nice, selling all manner of foods on a stick, and sat down.
Dean started the ordering, with him wanting a 9pc set of various things. Something must have been lost in translation, because we thought that the girl was saying we could order any 9 of the things from the menu. So Dean order 9. Then Paul did the same to share with Zoe. The girl looked at us funny, but kept taking our order, then when Mum ordered another 9 to share with Whitney, she must have thought we were gourmands or gluttons or something. Turns out, the 9 was a preselected set, and we had ordered another 9 on top of that. So when the baskets kept coming we were confused, but did our best to get through them. I also had ordered a bowl of pork kimchi, which tasted fab, but didn't have enough chilli. After finishing everything off, we sat around waiting for our food to digest a little, before we decided to get out of there, as a both of the booths near us were lighting up like chimneys. We walked around some more, but it was getting on to 7 o'clock, and everyone was getting tired, so we headed back towards Nanba station. There is a problem being a guy in Japan and it is this: nearly everywhere you walk, there are womens clothes shops, but no seats. There was another understreet/ground mall, akin to Yaesu, but with no wonderful, fantastic bottleshop at the end. It got to the stage where we just wanted to head back to base, but with Zoe and Whitney doing the bumble-bee and going into every shop, it got to the stage where Paul and I just kept walking slowly, and they had to keep up. My feet were hurting from breaking in a new pair of meeting shoes, with no arch support.
We eventually made it back to the station, and after a 2 stop strategy, we made our way back, via the Family Mart to grab the all important ingredients of chu-hi and ice cream. Everyone was tired and didn't feel like handing out, so I put some clothes in for washing, while Dean and I watched a football match or two. By the time the clothes had finished being in the dryer, it was 11.20, so I went out like a light.
I had to recheck the meeting time, and it was an earlier 2pm (not the 4pm I thought), as well as get directions on how to get there. Once this was burnt into my memory, I had a shower and a shave and got myself mostly ready. The idea this morning was to go to Umeda, get some breakfast, walk around for a while, before heading to the meeting. It would mean I was in my new meeting shoes pretty much all day, and while I'd have preferred my skate shoes, they weren't too bad.
In Umeda there is the Floating Gardens observatory and a recreated old town scene, but as Dean had forgotten to bring his DSLR, we decided to just potter around the area, rather than go searching for it. We got some breakfast (well, nearly brunch) at an Italian-esque cafe, but with a toasted panini and good coffee, I didn't care if they mixed up their Italian, French and Japanese names. Once we had all stopped the hungry grumbles, we started looking around. It's sort of hard to get your bearings underground, so after looking briefly at a gashapon area (toy capsules), we headed up onto the street. I pointed us roughly in the direction of the Kingdom Hall, hoping we'd find something interesting along the way. We found another mini-mall nestled below the expressway (good use of space) which had Kiddy Land in it. This one was nowhere near as well stocked or laid out as the one in Harajuku, but it gave us something to look at. Before long, it was getting time for lunch (amazing how shopping centres can just suck time like that), so we started looking for somewhere to eat. There was a few places with indistinguishable menus, but we eventually came upon a bagel place. We sat down and ordered some bagels, and I got a BLAT that didn't scrimp on the bacon. It was tasty and filling and would keep us going until well after the meeting.
By the time we'd finished, it was getting on close to 1pm. I had estimated with my head's GPS that we were about 1km as the crow flies from the Hall, so we set off in the direction my head told me. We got there nearly bang on 1.30, and the place was fairly empty. One of the brothers told us that most people don't arrive until 1.55, which is just as well, because the hall, like most Japanese halls is tiny. We met quite a few people. It seems for the English congregations in Japan, there usually a couple of native english speakers, whether from UK, North America, or Australia and NZ, a few from other nationalities (west african, russian, brazilian) that speak better english than Japanese, but the majority being Japanese brothers and sisters helping where there is a need.
It was great to be at a meeting, as you miss it when you aren't there. It's also great to be able to walk into a hall anywhere in the world and immediately have 50-100 friends. A youngish Japanese brother, married to an Indian sister gave the talk. The outline was "Follow the Course of Hospitality", a talk that I've given before, but the beauty of an outline is that each speaker develops the theme individually. I knew the main scriptures that needed to be used, but the information the brother used was different to what I chose.
We stayed after the meeting and chatted to the local brothers and sisters. Some, whose English wasn't as good, thanked us for our comments, while others wanted pictures and chatted about where to go for food and stuff in Osaka.
Following that we walked towards Ogimachi, where one of the brothers said there was a street lined with food (we didn't find it). We stopped off at the Kids Park briefly, then went to Baskin Robbins for an ice cream fix. While there we were trying to decide on the next course of action. We decided to go to Dotonbori, an area famous for its neons and eateries (it's an entertainment area, with lots of karaoke places). We got there, and after spending an eternity in Book Off, we made our way to the main street lined with food stalls, selling takoyaki, yakitori and other street foods. By this stage we were getting to the "too hungry to think" stage, so we went up to one that looked cheap and nice, selling all manner of foods on a stick, and sat down.
Dean started the ordering, with him wanting a 9pc set of various things. Something must have been lost in translation, because we thought that the girl was saying we could order any 9 of the things from the menu. So Dean order 9. Then Paul did the same to share with Zoe. The girl looked at us funny, but kept taking our order, then when Mum ordered another 9 to share with Whitney, she must have thought we were gourmands or gluttons or something. Turns out, the 9 was a preselected set, and we had ordered another 9 on top of that. So when the baskets kept coming we were confused, but did our best to get through them. I also had ordered a bowl of pork kimchi, which tasted fab, but didn't have enough chilli. After finishing everything off, we sat around waiting for our food to digest a little, before we decided to get out of there, as a both of the booths near us were lighting up like chimneys. We walked around some more, but it was getting on to 7 o'clock, and everyone was getting tired, so we headed back towards Nanba station. There is a problem being a guy in Japan and it is this: nearly everywhere you walk, there are womens clothes shops, but no seats. There was another understreet/ground mall, akin to Yaesu, but with no wonderful, fantastic bottleshop at the end. It got to the stage where we just wanted to head back to base, but with Zoe and Whitney doing the bumble-bee and going into every shop, it got to the stage where Paul and I just kept walking slowly, and they had to keep up. My feet were hurting from breaking in a new pair of meeting shoes, with no arch support.
We eventually made it back to the station, and after a 2 stop strategy, we made our way back, via the Family Mart to grab the all important ingredients of chu-hi and ice cream. Everyone was tired and didn't feel like handing out, so I put some clothes in for washing, while Dean and I watched a football match or two. By the time the clothes had finished being in the dryer, it was 11.20, so I went out like a light.
Monday, February 18, 2013
2 become 1
Okay, so it's a lame title, but there's really no point doing two seperate posts for the last 2 days.
Saturday morning we awoke from our slumber. We still had packing to do, but fortunately neither me or Dean had a lot of stuff, it was more, pack my snowboard away as well as my snow gear. All the rest of the stuff was either still in the suitcases, or was in a plastic bag needing washing. So by the time the others began to stir, we had already got ourselves ready for a day of transit. After lugging all our main bags downstairs, I organised Takkyubin for our snowboard bags, as well as a suitcase of Mum and Whitney's. This will meet us in Tokyo, but we head to Osaka for a few days first.
Eventually everyone made it down for breakfast, but seeing as how we weren't going snowboarding, I didn't eat a whole heap. We were also stopping in Tokyo for half an hour to change trains, so we could grab a bento from the station platforms or kiosks as well. Other than that there's not much to say. We got to the station with about 30mins to spare, giving us plenty of time to get tickets. We did that, but this being Japan, nothing was open at 8.30 in the morning, so we waited in the waiting room, as it was quite chilly. It would have been an excellent day to go boarding, as there was quite a bit of new powder overnight, and the temp had stayed down. Unfortunately, we wouldn't get to try it out, but Kerry and Tim were staying an extra night, so at least they would.
We got to Tokyo station rather uneventfully. No lost baggage, no meltdowns, just a quick run. It takes about 80mins from Yuzawa to Tokyo, but it didn't feel that long. Possibly, because between Yuzawa and Takasaki, most of it is tunnel (they just bored straight through the mountains), but I was also watching a couple of tv episodes on my phone. We arrived at Tokyo station, and changed platforms. The wind felt like an eskimo's fart, because it was pretty cold. We had about 15 mins once we got to the correct platform, so we huddled inside a bento kiosk on the platform. I got a pork katsu sandwich, a beer and a chocolate pudding for under 1000Y, so that was going to be a cheap lunch. We still had to wait for them to finish cleaning the train, but with more people on the platform, it acted as a wind break. Again, the rest of the trip went by without fuss.
We arrived at Shin-Osaka about 3 hours later, having just covered 758kms, via train in under 5 hours. It works well. No traffic, minimal stress, and you can have a sleep or a beer (or both) while doing about 300km/h. After arriving at Shin-Osaka, it was now time for me to play tour guide again. Fortunately, I had actually done the research beforehand, so I knew which line to get, just not the specifics (ie. price, where it was in relation to the shinkansen line). After getting down to the Midosuji line station, we grabbed the subway to Dobutsuen-mae, where our accommodation for this leg would be.
Upon getting out from the train, it became clear that we weren't in Kanto anymore Toto. Osaka is often described as the hyperactive younger brother of Tokyo, but unfortunately for us, I had got a hotel in the cheap area of town. The streets weren't very clean, and there were more hobos around. It felt a bit more like Ueno, but with the accommodation booked, there wasn't much I could do about it. Fortunately, the hotel is only a short distance from the station. Compared to the buildings around it though, the hotel is much nicer. It's clean and newer than the surrounds. Sort of like a rose among the horse poo, if a ferrocrete structure can be compared to a rose. After a quick check in, along with the ongoing issues with Zoe's GEMoney credit card (It's not working over here, GE Money sucks, go with a bank Visa), we were soon up to our rooms and making a mess.
By this stage we started getting hungry, as it was getting on to 3pm, and with most of us having eaten our bento somewhere between Yokohama and Fuji, we were getting to the "Can't think, need food" stage. In my internet travels, I had found that there was a decent sized shopping mall about 500m or less to the east of our hotel. So we decided to head there, as Paul, Dean and I all needed clothes for the meeting on Sunday.
We trundled towards Abeno-Q's and as we passed the express way, the buildings got a little nicer, and less dodgy looking. To get to the mall, we went through a couple of smaller arcades, that probably get a bit of pass-through business for people going to Abeno-Q's. By this stage, Paul was getting grumpy, so we headed up to level 2 and grabbed Mos Burger. It was only a shopping centre outlet, so they didn't have the chilli cheeseburgers that I like, but we needed food, so it didn't matter. Eating burgers is a lot more expensive over here. Although Mos burger is better than McDonald's for quality by a long shot, it's still not what you would call cheap. For 2 double cheeseburger meals and a Mos Burger meal, it was 2370Y. Considering we could have had a big bowl of ramen each for half that amount, I see why most people still prefer to eat the local food. We'd need all the energy we could get though, as we were with 2 girls who love to shop, and after eating around 4pm, we didn't leave this mall until 8.30pm.
I ended up getting 4 full-cotton meeting shirts. 2 are to replace ones I have previously bought but are now stained or old, and 2 new ones. Some more smart looking chinos for witnessing, and a pair of sketchers meeting shoes for a cheap 2890Y. In all, I ended spending about $230 on clothes, something I'm reticent to do at home, but where can you get smart looking, full cotton business shirts for 2990Y?
We continued to trundle around looking at ties, boots, more boots (Paul was cursing this place because of his boot mad wife), and eventually with our feet getting sore, we started walking back to the hotel. We stopped off at the Family Mart around the corner, and grabbed some ice cream and beer. And headed to our room. We decided to teach Paul and Zoe how to play up and down the creek, while Mum and Whitney watched, before they decided to turn in for the night. We stayed up just a little longer though, with Dean being the eventual winner, and decided to meet at 9am to go get breakfast.
Ok, so I'll make another post for tomorrow. For a day where not much happened, I suppose I did write about a few things.
Saturday morning we awoke from our slumber. We still had packing to do, but fortunately neither me or Dean had a lot of stuff, it was more, pack my snowboard away as well as my snow gear. All the rest of the stuff was either still in the suitcases, or was in a plastic bag needing washing. So by the time the others began to stir, we had already got ourselves ready for a day of transit. After lugging all our main bags downstairs, I organised Takkyubin for our snowboard bags, as well as a suitcase of Mum and Whitney's. This will meet us in Tokyo, but we head to Osaka for a few days first.
Eventually everyone made it down for breakfast, but seeing as how we weren't going snowboarding, I didn't eat a whole heap. We were also stopping in Tokyo for half an hour to change trains, so we could grab a bento from the station platforms or kiosks as well. Other than that there's not much to say. We got to the station with about 30mins to spare, giving us plenty of time to get tickets. We did that, but this being Japan, nothing was open at 8.30 in the morning, so we waited in the waiting room, as it was quite chilly. It would have been an excellent day to go boarding, as there was quite a bit of new powder overnight, and the temp had stayed down. Unfortunately, we wouldn't get to try it out, but Kerry and Tim were staying an extra night, so at least they would.
We got to Tokyo station rather uneventfully. No lost baggage, no meltdowns, just a quick run. It takes about 80mins from Yuzawa to Tokyo, but it didn't feel that long. Possibly, because between Yuzawa and Takasaki, most of it is tunnel (they just bored straight through the mountains), but I was also watching a couple of tv episodes on my phone. We arrived at Tokyo station, and changed platforms. The wind felt like an eskimo's fart, because it was pretty cold. We had about 15 mins once we got to the correct platform, so we huddled inside a bento kiosk on the platform. I got a pork katsu sandwich, a beer and a chocolate pudding for under 1000Y, so that was going to be a cheap lunch. We still had to wait for them to finish cleaning the train, but with more people on the platform, it acted as a wind break. Again, the rest of the trip went by without fuss.
We arrived at Shin-Osaka about 3 hours later, having just covered 758kms, via train in under 5 hours. It works well. No traffic, minimal stress, and you can have a sleep or a beer (or both) while doing about 300km/h. After arriving at Shin-Osaka, it was now time for me to play tour guide again. Fortunately, I had actually done the research beforehand, so I knew which line to get, just not the specifics (ie. price, where it was in relation to the shinkansen line). After getting down to the Midosuji line station, we grabbed the subway to Dobutsuen-mae, where our accommodation for this leg would be.
Upon getting out from the train, it became clear that we weren't in Kanto anymore Toto. Osaka is often described as the hyperactive younger brother of Tokyo, but unfortunately for us, I had got a hotel in the cheap area of town. The streets weren't very clean, and there were more hobos around. It felt a bit more like Ueno, but with the accommodation booked, there wasn't much I could do about it. Fortunately, the hotel is only a short distance from the station. Compared to the buildings around it though, the hotel is much nicer. It's clean and newer than the surrounds. Sort of like a rose among the horse poo, if a ferrocrete structure can be compared to a rose. After a quick check in, along with the ongoing issues with Zoe's GEMoney credit card (It's not working over here, GE Money sucks, go with a bank Visa), we were soon up to our rooms and making a mess.
By this stage we started getting hungry, as it was getting on to 3pm, and with most of us having eaten our bento somewhere between Yokohama and Fuji, we were getting to the "Can't think, need food" stage. In my internet travels, I had found that there was a decent sized shopping mall about 500m or less to the east of our hotel. So we decided to head there, as Paul, Dean and I all needed clothes for the meeting on Sunday.
We trundled towards Abeno-Q's and as we passed the express way, the buildings got a little nicer, and less dodgy looking. To get to the mall, we went through a couple of smaller arcades, that probably get a bit of pass-through business for people going to Abeno-Q's. By this stage, Paul was getting grumpy, so we headed up to level 2 and grabbed Mos Burger. It was only a shopping centre outlet, so they didn't have the chilli cheeseburgers that I like, but we needed food, so it didn't matter. Eating burgers is a lot more expensive over here. Although Mos burger is better than McDonald's for quality by a long shot, it's still not what you would call cheap. For 2 double cheeseburger meals and a Mos Burger meal, it was 2370Y. Considering we could have had a big bowl of ramen each for half that amount, I see why most people still prefer to eat the local food. We'd need all the energy we could get though, as we were with 2 girls who love to shop, and after eating around 4pm, we didn't leave this mall until 8.30pm.
I ended up getting 4 full-cotton meeting shirts. 2 are to replace ones I have previously bought but are now stained or old, and 2 new ones. Some more smart looking chinos for witnessing, and a pair of sketchers meeting shoes for a cheap 2890Y. In all, I ended spending about $230 on clothes, something I'm reticent to do at home, but where can you get smart looking, full cotton business shirts for 2990Y?
We continued to trundle around looking at ties, boots, more boots (Paul was cursing this place because of his boot mad wife), and eventually with our feet getting sore, we started walking back to the hotel. We stopped off at the Family Mart around the corner, and grabbed some ice cream and beer. And headed to our room. We decided to teach Paul and Zoe how to play up and down the creek, while Mum and Whitney watched, before they decided to turn in for the night. We stayed up just a little longer though, with Dean being the eventual winner, and decided to meet at 9am to go get breakfast.
Ok, so I'll make another post for tomorrow. For a day where not much happened, I suppose I did write about a few things.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Stick to the plan, everybody wants to go to the party, nobody wants to stay and clean up
Today was to be our last full day in Yuzawa. Dean was still sick, Zoe was still injured, and Paul was not going out again. This was hampering my enthusiasm, but I wanted to go snowboarding for our last day. The plan was to go to Kagura and Naeba, as I had told Tim and Kerry. After taking in a large breakfast, I got dropped at the station hoping to see them near by. It was only when I went to take a picture with my phone, that I got Tim's email saying they were going to Gala again, and they'd meet us there if we were. By this time I was already on the bus, and in hindsight, I probably should have turned around and gone back.
I arrived at Mitsumata ropeway around 10am, and the slopes were looking quite white. The ropeway goes from the carpark to the top of the Mitsumata where you can either play around on the beginner slope or get another lift up towards the area between Mitsumata and Kagura. I did the latter, and after a mid sized lift I was soon looking around what to do next. I saw a sign saying Kagura gondola that way-> so I went there. A short downslope later and I was at the base of the gondola. I caught the gondola up alone, but it seemed like it went for an eternity. When I eventually made it to the top, it looked as though there was only more lifts to go on. After a brief trip to the loo, I strapped in and headed down to the small lift about 100m away. After getting to the top, I started on the run down towards where I had just come from. The piste was a mixture between icy groomer, thin powder and clumped powder. With the light conditions it was actually hard to see what was where, even with yellow/rose lenses. I was near the bottom when I took a tumble, hurting my already injured ankle. By now, I had the sneaking suspicion that I wasn't going to be a confident on my feet.
I made it down the slope, but it wasn't nice. I was stiff and sore, but having bought a day ticket, thought I should do more than one run. So I grabbed the lift up again, and was intending to head to Tashiro, when I started talking to the girl that was sitting on the lift with me. She tld me she was heading for the tree run, so wanting to play a bit more, I followed her around. She was cute but a little crazy. We took the top pair lift to the very top of Kagura, and after strapping in, she heads straight for the ropes and ducks them. I follow as best as I could, but there was a lot of powder, and with my ankle being twisted, I didn't have the control needed. After a couple of wash outs, I couldn't see her anywhere. I didn't want to be lost, off-piste in an unfamiliar terrain, so I started toboganning back towards the run. After a lot of snow in the face, I made it and just rested for a while on the slope. The girl had made it down to the lift and and rushed down again before catching me. Because of the copious amount of snow in the face, my goggles were now full of snow, so I couldn't see out of them. I cleaned them as best I could, but with them fogging up, I couldn't see where I was going, let alone what to avoid.
We made it down the bottom of run and after cleaning the lenses a bit more, we got the lift back up to do it again. I decided to stay on the main run and just go around a few trees, so she did the same, floating powder banks and going around trees with the greatest of ease. After making it down the bottom again, it was close to 12, so I headed in for some food. She was still wanting to go more, so she said goodbye and thanked me for riding with her, and headed off. After a "small" curry and beer, the snow had started to fall moderately, so I made the decision to head back to Yuzawa.
It ended up being the correct decision, as after I came out from the restaurant, I already had about 1cm of snow on my board (from 15mins). I started down the run and was moving okay, but probably half way down, I came over a bump and my board went up and across, making me land full force on my tailbone. I was really hurting now, and I don't particularly like boarding solo, as if I get injured there's no one to help. I made it to the Mitsumata ropeway, but was still in quite a bit of pain, so messaged Whitney to book me a massage. I got the ropeway down, (I could have boarded back to the carpark but was too sore), and checked the time. It was just past 1 and the next bus back to Yuzawa wasn't until 1.33, so I grabbed a crepe from the mobile van, as well as a can of hot coffee. By this time, the temperature started dropping, and the snow really started chucking it down. While I waited for the bus, I was getting covered by snow.
I eventually made it back to Yuzawa and the hotel, and decided to have an onsen to see if I could loosen up my ankle and knee. It helped a slight bit for the muscular tension, but getting hurt is getting hurt, there's no magical cure other than time.
I sat around blogging for a little while but with a dead phone, a dead video camera, and a forgotten point and shoot, I couldn't upload any pics from the day. At 4.30, it was time for my massage, and I went in not fully knowing what to expect, as it was supposed to be a Thai massage. The lady was nice and started off with my legs. My left leg was fine, and I could move quite freely, but my right leg was so stiff from stacking it, that she thought I was really tense and should relax.
She then got me to go onto my back, where she started to work the muscles on my back. Lower back was ok, but my buttocks hure from landing hard on my tail bone. Right middle back was ok, but left middle was knotted severe, and with this lady seemingly able to crack coconuts with her hands, I soon was being kneaded to get the muscles back to some working order. It was a fairly good massage, though I might have to get another in Osaka, after carrying baggage all day.
Originally, we had planned to just have nibblys in our rooms, but Dean said nibblies wouldn't help him get better, so all of us except Zoe decided to head out for dinner. We got the shuttle to the station and decided to keep it simple and just go to a ramen place down the end, near the italian cafe we ate at earlier on in the week. Paul and I ended up getting a ramen set (Big bowl of ramen, some rice and gyouza) for 980Y, while Dean, Mum and Whitney got different things, but still basically ramen and gyouza. We finished it quickly and after heading back towards the exit, saw the van from the hotel. Oyama-san told us that it was full, but he'd be back in about 8mins to pick us up. Mum really needed to get some dosh out, so Whitney asked him to pick us up from the 7-11, so we headed there and waited.
The snow was still falling at this stage, so we stayed in the alcove waiting for the van, while the small flakes fell around us. The snow was a little wet, with it nearly melting on impact. Oyama-san eventually returned and we made the quick jaunt back to the hotel.
We had planned on packing up, but by this stage we were all tired, so we spent a little time eating and drinking in Paul and Zoe's room, before turning in for the night. I watched an episode of something on my phone, while Dean watched Prometheus. I was tired by the end of it though so I quickly fell asleep, dead to the world.
I arrived at Mitsumata ropeway around 10am, and the slopes were looking quite white. The ropeway goes from the carpark to the top of the Mitsumata where you can either play around on the beginner slope or get another lift up towards the area between Mitsumata and Kagura. I did the latter, and after a mid sized lift I was soon looking around what to do next. I saw a sign saying Kagura gondola that way-> so I went there. A short downslope later and I was at the base of the gondola. I caught the gondola up alone, but it seemed like it went for an eternity. When I eventually made it to the top, it looked as though there was only more lifts to go on. After a brief trip to the loo, I strapped in and headed down to the small lift about 100m away. After getting to the top, I started on the run down towards where I had just come from. The piste was a mixture between icy groomer, thin powder and clumped powder. With the light conditions it was actually hard to see what was where, even with yellow/rose lenses. I was near the bottom when I took a tumble, hurting my already injured ankle. By now, I had the sneaking suspicion that I wasn't going to be a confident on my feet.
I made it down the slope, but it wasn't nice. I was stiff and sore, but having bought a day ticket, thought I should do more than one run. So I grabbed the lift up again, and was intending to head to Tashiro, when I started talking to the girl that was sitting on the lift with me. She tld me she was heading for the tree run, so wanting to play a bit more, I followed her around. She was cute but a little crazy. We took the top pair lift to the very top of Kagura, and after strapping in, she heads straight for the ropes and ducks them. I follow as best as I could, but there was a lot of powder, and with my ankle being twisted, I didn't have the control needed. After a couple of wash outs, I couldn't see her anywhere. I didn't want to be lost, off-piste in an unfamiliar terrain, so I started toboganning back towards the run. After a lot of snow in the face, I made it and just rested for a while on the slope. The girl had made it down to the lift and and rushed down again before catching me. Because of the copious amount of snow in the face, my goggles were now full of snow, so I couldn't see out of them. I cleaned them as best I could, but with them fogging up, I couldn't see where I was going, let alone what to avoid.
We made it down the bottom of run and after cleaning the lenses a bit more, we got the lift back up to do it again. I decided to stay on the main run and just go around a few trees, so she did the same, floating powder banks and going around trees with the greatest of ease. After making it down the bottom again, it was close to 12, so I headed in for some food. She was still wanting to go more, so she said goodbye and thanked me for riding with her, and headed off. After a "small" curry and beer, the snow had started to fall moderately, so I made the decision to head back to Yuzawa.
It ended up being the correct decision, as after I came out from the restaurant, I already had about 1cm of snow on my board (from 15mins). I started down the run and was moving okay, but probably half way down, I came over a bump and my board went up and across, making me land full force on my tailbone. I was really hurting now, and I don't particularly like boarding solo, as if I get injured there's no one to help. I made it to the Mitsumata ropeway, but was still in quite a bit of pain, so messaged Whitney to book me a massage. I got the ropeway down, (I could have boarded back to the carpark but was too sore), and checked the time. It was just past 1 and the next bus back to Yuzawa wasn't until 1.33, so I grabbed a crepe from the mobile van, as well as a can of hot coffee. By this time, the temperature started dropping, and the snow really started chucking it down. While I waited for the bus, I was getting covered by snow.
I eventually made it back to Yuzawa and the hotel, and decided to have an onsen to see if I could loosen up my ankle and knee. It helped a slight bit for the muscular tension, but getting hurt is getting hurt, there's no magical cure other than time.
I sat around blogging for a little while but with a dead phone, a dead video camera, and a forgotten point and shoot, I couldn't upload any pics from the day. At 4.30, it was time for my massage, and I went in not fully knowing what to expect, as it was supposed to be a Thai massage. The lady was nice and started off with my legs. My left leg was fine, and I could move quite freely, but my right leg was so stiff from stacking it, that she thought I was really tense and should relax.
She then got me to go onto my back, where she started to work the muscles on my back. Lower back was ok, but my buttocks hure from landing hard on my tail bone. Right middle back was ok, but left middle was knotted severe, and with this lady seemingly able to crack coconuts with her hands, I soon was being kneaded to get the muscles back to some working order. It was a fairly good massage, though I might have to get another in Osaka, after carrying baggage all day.
Originally, we had planned to just have nibblys in our rooms, but Dean said nibblies wouldn't help him get better, so all of us except Zoe decided to head out for dinner. We got the shuttle to the station and decided to keep it simple and just go to a ramen place down the end, near the italian cafe we ate at earlier on in the week. Paul and I ended up getting a ramen set (Big bowl of ramen, some rice and gyouza) for 980Y, while Dean, Mum and Whitney got different things, but still basically ramen and gyouza. We finished it quickly and after heading back towards the exit, saw the van from the hotel. Oyama-san told us that it was full, but he'd be back in about 8mins to pick us up. Mum really needed to get some dosh out, so Whitney asked him to pick us up from the 7-11, so we headed there and waited.
The snow was still falling at this stage, so we stayed in the alcove waiting for the van, while the small flakes fell around us. The snow was a little wet, with it nearly melting on impact. Oyama-san eventually returned and we made the quick jaunt back to the hotel.
We had planned on packing up, but by this stage we were all tired, so we spent a little time eating and drinking in Paul and Zoe's room, before turning in for the night. I watched an episode of something on my phone, while Dean watched Prometheus. I was tired by the end of it though so I quickly fell asleep, dead to the world.
Friday, February 15, 2013
I haven't had a shower in a week
No seriously, I haven't. I've been using the onsens everyday, so you wet and scrub yourself before getting in, then soak for a bit, then rinse yourself off afterwards.
Today I woke up with no energy. I didn't want to get man-flu like Dean, so I decided a day off was needed. Pity too, as I would have liked to hit up Gala Yuzawa/Yuzawa Kogen/Ishiuchi Maruyama. But my body was telling me no, so thought it best to listen. I hate sitting around, so after having breakfast, and an onsen, I got ready to go into town. Just as I got to the lobby, Tim and Kerry arrived, and I had to tell them I wasn't going out. They decided to go to Gala anyway, so they walked back down and around to the slopes.
Dean ended up going back to sleep, and Zoe didn't feel up to much, so Paul, Mum, Whit and I got the mini-van into town. We were going in and out of the shops, passing time. I wasn't too hungry, but once the yakiniku stalls opened, Paul and I got some meat sticks, and Mum and Whitney got some Takoyaki to share. They also wanted to show us where they had the awesome creme caramel the day before. so after walking around for a while, we headed across the carpark to the place they had them.
The furnishings were interesting. For tables, they had big old wooden doors, with the iron rivets and knockers and rings, as well as sporadic bookshelfs and stools to sit on. We ordered some of the "puddin" and Paul ordered some very moorish chocolate cake, whilst Whitney got a cheesecake with berries to share with Mum. It was pretty good creme caramel, as the custard was really creamy. Possibly a little rich, but I didn't intend on going back for seconds.
We then started walking back to the hotel, via the fruit shop (had to get more strawberries, and a massive fuji apple), a toy/knick-knack shop, cake and alcohol shop (all your vices in one place), and wherever looked interesting enough to poke our heads into. As we went, we threw snowballs, took pictures, and mucked around, but got back to the hotel eventually. It was getting on to about 2pm, and with Dean sleeping in our room, I hung out in mum and Whitney's room and type the day before's blog entry. Time got away and before we knew it it was getting on to 4pm. I went and had another onsen, while Mum scoured the information booklet for somewhere to eat. They found a place called Bitoro (Vitreaux) that looked like it had a bit of everything, so that was the decision made.
Once everyone was ready, we asked at the front desk. Instead of just us to the 7-11 or West Exit of the train station as per normal, the guy drove us straight to the restaurant. On getting out, we saw it was closed, with a few of us thinking we would be searching around for the next few hours for somewhere else to eat. Just as we were going to walk off, a car pulled up and a largish Japanese man got out. He then opens the door and tells us to go up. Sweet. We had just been a bit early, is all.
The menu was mostly in Japanese, but as it was katakana, both Whitney and I could translate it quite easily. I ordered a steak and potato (wedges), caesar salad, while the rest ordered 2x steak salads, 1x fried chicken, 1x fried potato wedges, 1x margarita, 1x ham and cheese pizza and a lobster spaghetti, as well as a pitcher of beer, a drinks bar, smirnoff ice, milk tea and a caraff of wine. We ate til exploding, as we didn't realise the serves would be so generous. The total price was 14300Y, so very good for the size and quality that we ate.
We started walking back through the station, and wouldn't you know it, the crepe place was closed again (must close early, as it was only 7pm-ish). We walked around the markets some more, with mum and Zoe looking at cheeses, but by the time we were finished, it was getting late (too late for the Hiace), and Dean said he was ok to walk, so we wondered out way back to the hotel via the cake and alcohol shop.
We decided the party would move to mum's room that night, and we were all in there eating nibblys, but after sharing a pitcher of beer with Dean, I didn't feel like any more. We had been there a few minutes, when there was a knock at the door. Everyone else was feeling tired, so I went and answered. It was one of the old guys staying down the hall. He invited me for a drink, which I obliged. He was a retired gent from Chiba city, who had been taking English classes, so I think he just wanted to practice his english. The other guy didn't say much, but I think he may have been the older guy mum had directed down the hall, after he mistakenly come into Dean and my room. They poured me a generous measure of sake and we sat down on the cushions. Now usually I'm not that fond of sake, I find it a little salty and prefer shochu (japanese) or soju (korean) rice spirit. But this stuff was nice, and I noticed it as one of the local bottles they were selling markets. We chatted for a bit, before I decided to go. I was getting tired, and didn't really feel like being plied with alcohol, so after a couple of photos with the ojisans, we said our good nights and went to bed.
I'll update the posts with more photos later on. I've got flat batteries in my phone, video-camera and I keep forgetting to take my camera out with me.
Today I woke up with no energy. I didn't want to get man-flu like Dean, so I decided a day off was needed. Pity too, as I would have liked to hit up Gala Yuzawa/Yuzawa Kogen/Ishiuchi Maruyama. But my body was telling me no, so thought it best to listen. I hate sitting around, so after having breakfast, and an onsen, I got ready to go into town. Just as I got to the lobby, Tim and Kerry arrived, and I had to tell them I wasn't going out. They decided to go to Gala anyway, so they walked back down and around to the slopes.
Dean ended up going back to sleep, and Zoe didn't feel up to much, so Paul, Mum, Whit and I got the mini-van into town. We were going in and out of the shops, passing time. I wasn't too hungry, but once the yakiniku stalls opened, Paul and I got some meat sticks, and Mum and Whitney got some Takoyaki to share. They also wanted to show us where they had the awesome creme caramel the day before. so after walking around for a while, we headed across the carpark to the place they had them.
The furnishings were interesting. For tables, they had big old wooden doors, with the iron rivets and knockers and rings, as well as sporadic bookshelfs and stools to sit on. We ordered some of the "puddin" and Paul ordered some very moorish chocolate cake, whilst Whitney got a cheesecake with berries to share with Mum. It was pretty good creme caramel, as the custard was really creamy. Possibly a little rich, but I didn't intend on going back for seconds.
We then started walking back to the hotel, via the fruit shop (had to get more strawberries, and a massive fuji apple), a toy/knick-knack shop, cake and alcohol shop (all your vices in one place), and wherever looked interesting enough to poke our heads into. As we went, we threw snowballs, took pictures, and mucked around, but got back to the hotel eventually. It was getting on to about 2pm, and with Dean sleeping in our room, I hung out in mum and Whitney's room and type the day before's blog entry. Time got away and before we knew it it was getting on to 4pm. I went and had another onsen, while Mum scoured the information booklet for somewhere to eat. They found a place called Bitoro (Vitreaux) that looked like it had a bit of everything, so that was the decision made.
Once everyone was ready, we asked at the front desk. Instead of just us to the 7-11 or West Exit of the train station as per normal, the guy drove us straight to the restaurant. On getting out, we saw it was closed, with a few of us thinking we would be searching around for the next few hours for somewhere else to eat. Just as we were going to walk off, a car pulled up and a largish Japanese man got out. He then opens the door and tells us to go up. Sweet. We had just been a bit early, is all.
The menu was mostly in Japanese, but as it was katakana, both Whitney and I could translate it quite easily. I ordered a steak and potato (wedges), caesar salad, while the rest ordered 2x steak salads, 1x fried chicken, 1x fried potato wedges, 1x margarita, 1x ham and cheese pizza and a lobster spaghetti, as well as a pitcher of beer, a drinks bar, smirnoff ice, milk tea and a caraff of wine. We ate til exploding, as we didn't realise the serves would be so generous. The total price was 14300Y, so very good for the size and quality that we ate.
We started walking back through the station, and wouldn't you know it, the crepe place was closed again (must close early, as it was only 7pm-ish). We walked around the markets some more, with mum and Zoe looking at cheeses, but by the time we were finished, it was getting late (too late for the Hiace), and Dean said he was ok to walk, so we wondered out way back to the hotel via the cake and alcohol shop.
We decided the party would move to mum's room that night, and we were all in there eating nibblys, but after sharing a pitcher of beer with Dean, I didn't feel like any more. We had been there a few minutes, when there was a knock at the door. Everyone else was feeling tired, so I went and answered. It was one of the old guys staying down the hall. He invited me for a drink, which I obliged. He was a retired gent from Chiba city, who had been taking English classes, so I think he just wanted to practice his english. The other guy didn't say much, but I think he may have been the older guy mum had directed down the hall, after he mistakenly come into Dean and my room. They poured me a generous measure of sake and we sat down on the cushions. Now usually I'm not that fond of sake, I find it a little salty and prefer shochu (japanese) or soju (korean) rice spirit. But this stuff was nice, and I noticed it as one of the local bottles they were selling markets. We chatted for a bit, before I decided to go. I was getting tired, and didn't really feel like being plied with alcohol, so after a couple of photos with the ojisans, we said our good nights and went to bed.
I'll update the posts with more photos later on. I've got flat batteries in my phone, video-camera and I keep forgetting to take my camera out with me.
Splat, Splat feeling flat
Dean had come down with Tim's cold, meaning I didn't get much sleep with his snoring. I tried to get back to sleep as long as possible, but by 4.30am, I knew it wasn't going to happen. I decided to head downstairs to blog and go into the onsen while it was quiet. Eventually everyone made it for breakfast, with some fairly traditional Japanese stuff on offer. I like to try stuff, but with a lot of things either fish based or soy based, I find that it upsets my stomach if I go too radical with my taste buds.
Today we were off to Maiko resort, as I had won a free ticket from the SnowJapan forums. I had originally intended to spend the half-day there upon arrival to Yuzawa, but between fetching bags with Mum and Tim, and Dean coming down with sickness, it didn't happen. We had organised to meet Tim and Kerry at 8.15am at the train station, but this was perhaps a little optimistic, considering lunch was only served at 7.30, plus we still needed to get ready, prep the boards, and get down to the station. Needless to say, we were quite a bit later when we met a worried looking Kerry. Tim had been sick and sleeping all night, and had decided to see how he felt later on. We walked through the station from the West Exit to the East Exit and after some broken Japanese, found the bus to Maiko.
The bus ride was largely uneventful. The area around Maiko was blanketed with snow, some up to the second story of the houses, and the bus driver weaved the bus around the narrow curving streets lined with snow banks. It took about 25 mins to reach the base station of the area, and we went inside. Although I had read about it previously, I had forgotten that Wednesday's are Girls Day at Maiko, with females receiving a 1000Y discount on the day's ticket. So Zoe was happy. This also meant there were tons of snow bunnies on the slopes, ranging from complete beginners, to more experienced girls. :)
After getting onto the lift, we had to skate to where the slope started. It was a fairly flat slope, so probably a good one for teaching Paul and Zoe on, but between Paul not positioning himself properly on the board, and Zoe being wobbily on her feet, it took about 40 mins to get down. We lined up again, and Zoe did much better this time. Paul followed soon after (he was adjusting his binding angle) and we made it down in about 20 mins. The only problem was, right at the end of the run, Zoe wanted to stop, but didn't want to hit her back/tailbone (it was hard-packed), so used her arms to stop her fall, which jarred her shoulder. She seems very good at injurying herself, but I suppose all of us jar shoulders and tailbones when we first learn. Paul was still having problems, as his body wants to continually centre itself, so putting weight on one leg, and leaning forward wasn't happening for him.
I had promised Zoe a beer and a crepe when we got down the bottom, so we all unstrapped, and went inside the main building. Because I didn't have to buy a lift ticket, I was already up money, so I got Zoe, Paul and I a special choco-strawberry custard crepe. Oh my goodness, I never eat enough crepes when I'm over here. After sinking my face into that, and washing it down with a beer, I was ready to go. Zoe was feeling a little better as well, although her shoulder was a little sore. But we grabbed out boards to head up to the lift. I told Paul to try my board, as he is roughly the same weight and height, but is using his brothers board, which is a 157. After walking off the lift this time (both previous times, Paul and Zoe had skated off without incident), we strapped in at the start of the slope to head down.
I don't know how Paul was riding at all. The board was unwaxed, and virtually uncontrollable at the length he was riding. Whereas I would usually be slashing and carving, without hiccups, I felt uneasy and the stance was hurting my legs. Paul got down to where I was and said that he hated my board, that he didn't feel stable on it. Oh well, there's no accounting for ideosyncracies.
We made it down the run again, but Zoe stacked it, and accidentally put her thumb under when falling. This signalled the end for her day, and Paul as well. We headed back into the lodge to sit for a while, and after getting Zoe bandaged up we ate some hotdogs. Then Kerry and Tim came in (Tim had met us on the slope before we got the crepes and beer). They had done a few runs, but overall, come to the conclusion that "this place is crap". I felt bad, because I was being tour guide, but the conditions were quite warm, and I don't really have a say in that. I originally had only planned on spending a half day here, so between that and the main gondola not running, it wasn't as varied and powdery as Shiga had been.
The guys wanted to head back, and we were of the same mind, but the next bus was 30 mins away. Kerry bought a vanilla crepe (doesn't like strawberries or banana??) and smashed it down so hard, he immediately went and grabbed another one. Then Kerry, Zoe and Paul looked in the shops, with Kerry buying a sticker for his board. As we were waiting, it started snowing lightly. Because Maiko doesn't have a lot of elevation, it was quite wet snow, melting nearly as soon as it hit the ground, cars and pretty much everything. When the bus arrived, it suddenly decided to turn it on, because the flakes grew from rain-drop size, to full on massive flakes. They were still wet, but were the type that build up quickly, so in the 2 or 3 minutes that we were waiting for the bus to take off, a layer of white developped on the cars.
Winding our way back to Yuzawa, I was on the other side of the bus this time, so saw a few things we didn't see on the way here. There were fields and houses that were absolutely blanketed by the whit stuff. I'm sure if you tried to walk through, it would have been about 3 metres deep, but it made for a cool site, although pictures taken from a bus don't really do it justice.
We made it back to Yuzawa and walked through the station, and with various places selling yakiniku (bbq meat skewers), Kerry felt the need to just go and grab one, which went at a quick pace. We got to the other side of the station, and bid Tim and Kerry farewell, organising for them to come to our hotel tomorrow morning to go boarding closer by.
We then phoned the hotel to come and pick us up where we found Dean in full "I'm sick, I'm dying mode", (actually, he was sleeping), and Mum and Whitney had been pottering around the shops in town and found the best Creme Caramel. It was only 3pm, but with not much doing, we sat around blogging, watching TV and getting in the onsen.
Dean was feeling like meat for dinner, so we got the driver to drop us off at the 7-11, and we walked back along the street to where Dean had seen a Yakitori place during the day. It was closed, so as we kept walking, we came across a place called Heaven. It wasn't. We had some drinks and a plate of chicken and the bill was 5200Y????? They had charged us for the edamame beans and this weird root vegetable that we didn't even order. We also had to sit on the floor on cushions. Usually I'm ok, but with my knee and ankle being cactus, it was actually painful to do so. After not being very satisfied and feeling like we'd been stooged for being foreigners, we walked back towards the station, where the crepes and yakiniku had closed for the evening. We decided that gyouza was the food of the day, but varioius restaurants in the station were all closing (it was 7.30 at night). We knew there was a ramen place across the road from the carpark/taxi rank, so we headed there, hoping to find gyouza. Whitney was tired from being translator/spokesperson, so it was my turn to try and ask for stuff. I asked and he did have some, so we all came upstairs and sat down.
While not the best gyouza and ramen we'd ever had, it was far more satisfying than some measily bits of chicken or green beans. For 5 plates of gyouza, 4 biiig bowls of ramen, coke, beer and stuff, it was 6120Y. Much more reasonable as well. We then went back to 7-11 to grab vitamin c and other things, before calling the hotel. I must have got the only clerk who didn't speak any english and whereas it's only taken 10Y to make a call to get the Hiace to pick us up, I went through 20Y and still was no where. Whitney then phoned and asked, but was then informed that it was after 6pm, so the shuttle wasn't running... But we did it later the night before... Dean needed to get out of the cold, so we bundled him, Whitney, Mum and Zoe into a taxi, whilst Paul and I walked. It isn't that far, perhaps 1.5km, so it takes about 20 mins to walk the distance. In the journey, we looked at various cars, checked out the snow banks that had formed near the less fancy lodges, and just generally chatted, so it didn't seem that long at all. We met the others in the library, and headed up to Dean and my room, where we sat around drinking scotch, eating cheese and salami and stuff. We were getting tired by that stage, so by 10pm, we all turned in for the night.
Today we were off to Maiko resort, as I had won a free ticket from the SnowJapan forums. I had originally intended to spend the half-day there upon arrival to Yuzawa, but between fetching bags with Mum and Tim, and Dean coming down with sickness, it didn't happen. We had organised to meet Tim and Kerry at 8.15am at the train station, but this was perhaps a little optimistic, considering lunch was only served at 7.30, plus we still needed to get ready, prep the boards, and get down to the station. Needless to say, we were quite a bit later when we met a worried looking Kerry. Tim had been sick and sleeping all night, and had decided to see how he felt later on. We walked through the station from the West Exit to the East Exit and after some broken Japanese, found the bus to Maiko.
The bus ride was largely uneventful. The area around Maiko was blanketed with snow, some up to the second story of the houses, and the bus driver weaved the bus around the narrow curving streets lined with snow banks. It took about 25 mins to reach the base station of the area, and we went inside. Although I had read about it previously, I had forgotten that Wednesday's are Girls Day at Maiko, with females receiving a 1000Y discount on the day's ticket. So Zoe was happy. This also meant there were tons of snow bunnies on the slopes, ranging from complete beginners, to more experienced girls. :)
After getting onto the lift, we had to skate to where the slope started. It was a fairly flat slope, so probably a good one for teaching Paul and Zoe on, but between Paul not positioning himself properly on the board, and Zoe being wobbily on her feet, it took about 40 mins to get down. We lined up again, and Zoe did much better this time. Paul followed soon after (he was adjusting his binding angle) and we made it down in about 20 mins. The only problem was, right at the end of the run, Zoe wanted to stop, but didn't want to hit her back/tailbone (it was hard-packed), so used her arms to stop her fall, which jarred her shoulder. She seems very good at injurying herself, but I suppose all of us jar shoulders and tailbones when we first learn. Paul was still having problems, as his body wants to continually centre itself, so putting weight on one leg, and leaning forward wasn't happening for him.
I had promised Zoe a beer and a crepe when we got down the bottom, so we all unstrapped, and went inside the main building. Because I didn't have to buy a lift ticket, I was already up money, so I got Zoe, Paul and I a special choco-strawberry custard crepe. Oh my goodness, I never eat enough crepes when I'm over here. After sinking my face into that, and washing it down with a beer, I was ready to go. Zoe was feeling a little better as well, although her shoulder was a little sore. But we grabbed out boards to head up to the lift. I told Paul to try my board, as he is roughly the same weight and height, but is using his brothers board, which is a 157. After walking off the lift this time (both previous times, Paul and Zoe had skated off without incident), we strapped in at the start of the slope to head down.
I don't know how Paul was riding at all. The board was unwaxed, and virtually uncontrollable at the length he was riding. Whereas I would usually be slashing and carving, without hiccups, I felt uneasy and the stance was hurting my legs. Paul got down to where I was and said that he hated my board, that he didn't feel stable on it. Oh well, there's no accounting for ideosyncracies.
We made it down the run again, but Zoe stacked it, and accidentally put her thumb under when falling. This signalled the end for her day, and Paul as well. We headed back into the lodge to sit for a while, and after getting Zoe bandaged up we ate some hotdogs. Then Kerry and Tim came in (Tim had met us on the slope before we got the crepes and beer). They had done a few runs, but overall, come to the conclusion that "this place is crap". I felt bad, because I was being tour guide, but the conditions were quite warm, and I don't really have a say in that. I originally had only planned on spending a half day here, so between that and the main gondola not running, it wasn't as varied and powdery as Shiga had been.
The guys wanted to head back, and we were of the same mind, but the next bus was 30 mins away. Kerry bought a vanilla crepe (doesn't like strawberries or banana??) and smashed it down so hard, he immediately went and grabbed another one. Then Kerry, Zoe and Paul looked in the shops, with Kerry buying a sticker for his board. As we were waiting, it started snowing lightly. Because Maiko doesn't have a lot of elevation, it was quite wet snow, melting nearly as soon as it hit the ground, cars and pretty much everything. When the bus arrived, it suddenly decided to turn it on, because the flakes grew from rain-drop size, to full on massive flakes. They were still wet, but were the type that build up quickly, so in the 2 or 3 minutes that we were waiting for the bus to take off, a layer of white developped on the cars.
Winding our way back to Yuzawa, I was on the other side of the bus this time, so saw a few things we didn't see on the way here. There were fields and houses that were absolutely blanketed by the whit stuff. I'm sure if you tried to walk through, it would have been about 3 metres deep, but it made for a cool site, although pictures taken from a bus don't really do it justice.
We made it back to Yuzawa and walked through the station, and with various places selling yakiniku (bbq meat skewers), Kerry felt the need to just go and grab one, which went at a quick pace. We got to the other side of the station, and bid Tim and Kerry farewell, organising for them to come to our hotel tomorrow morning to go boarding closer by.
We then phoned the hotel to come and pick us up where we found Dean in full "I'm sick, I'm dying mode", (actually, he was sleeping), and Mum and Whitney had been pottering around the shops in town and found the best Creme Caramel. It was only 3pm, but with not much doing, we sat around blogging, watching TV and getting in the onsen.
Dean was feeling like meat for dinner, so we got the driver to drop us off at the 7-11, and we walked back along the street to where Dean had seen a Yakitori place during the day. It was closed, so as we kept walking, we came across a place called Heaven. It wasn't. We had some drinks and a plate of chicken and the bill was 5200Y????? They had charged us for the edamame beans and this weird root vegetable that we didn't even order. We also had to sit on the floor on cushions. Usually I'm ok, but with my knee and ankle being cactus, it was actually painful to do so. After not being very satisfied and feeling like we'd been stooged for being foreigners, we walked back towards the station, where the crepes and yakiniku had closed for the evening. We decided that gyouza was the food of the day, but varioius restaurants in the station were all closing (it was 7.30 at night). We knew there was a ramen place across the road from the carpark/taxi rank, so we headed there, hoping to find gyouza. Whitney was tired from being translator/spokesperson, so it was my turn to try and ask for stuff. I asked and he did have some, so we all came upstairs and sat down.
While not the best gyouza and ramen we'd ever had, it was far more satisfying than some measily bits of chicken or green beans. For 5 plates of gyouza, 4 biiig bowls of ramen, coke, beer and stuff, it was 6120Y. Much more reasonable as well. We then went back to 7-11 to grab vitamin c and other things, before calling the hotel. I must have got the only clerk who didn't speak any english and whereas it's only taken 10Y to make a call to get the Hiace to pick us up, I went through 20Y and still was no where. Whitney then phoned and asked, but was then informed that it was after 6pm, so the shuttle wasn't running... But we did it later the night before... Dean needed to get out of the cold, so we bundled him, Whitney, Mum and Zoe into a taxi, whilst Paul and I walked. It isn't that far, perhaps 1.5km, so it takes about 20 mins to walk the distance. In the journey, we looked at various cars, checked out the snow banks that had formed near the less fancy lodges, and just generally chatted, so it didn't seem that long at all. We met the others in the library, and headed up to Dean and my room, where we sat around drinking scotch, eating cheese and salami and stuff. We were getting tired by that stage, so by 10pm, we all turned in for the night.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Dude, Where's my bag?
With Dean and I totally wrecked the previous night, we hadn't packed much except our boards. We were trying to dry out our clothes/helmet/gloves etc, so these still had to be packed into the snowboard bag, whilst all our other accoutriments had to be bundled into the other bags. Not really hard, but not what you want to think about first thing in the morning.
After getting everything together, then dragging bags down to the lobby, we headed in for breakfast. As we wouldn't be snowboarding until after lunch, I didn't feel the need to have a massive breakfast, which was ok, because sometimes, I don't really feel a big breakfast.
We then dragged all the baggage from the lobby to the bus stop. Considering the lobby is up a steepish flight of stairs, it's occasionally daunting not to fall over/down whilst carrying a 20kg suitcase. We were running early, which meant we had about 10 mins til the bus came, in the -7 deg temperature. There was a few others waiting at the stop as well, giving me funny looks as I was wearing shorts as per normal. This bus was packed, with the driver having to lug a suitcase (ours) along with a sports bag on and off the stairs as the hold was full. The people that gone on at the stops afterwards had to sit on the fold out seats as well.
We got to Nagano station right on time, but had about 30mins wait for the train. This was planned, as it would give us time to get the tickets, get money from 7-11 and get to the right place without stressing for time. The first leg from Nagano to Takasaki was ok, not much to think about, as it's the same as coming up, however the leg from Takasaki to Echigo-Yuzawa was a new exciting experience...
Well, it would have been, except Mum and Tim had left their backpacks on the seat at Takasaki. AAAaahhh, world ending crisis... well, not really. We told one of the ticket officers who phoned it through. When we got to Echigo-Yuzawa, we talked to the ticket office and said that they had the bags waiting for us at the Station Information counter at the Central gate. I was designated spokesperson, so I hopped on the train with Mum and Tim, back to Takasaki to collect the errant bags.
The journey from Takasaki isn't much to talk about. As opposed to the Nagano shinkansen where there is a lot of scenery whizzing past at 250km/h, most of the journey betwen Takasaki and Echigo-Yuzawa is tunnel. The train is cool though, as it's a double decker thing with food and drink.
We soon made it to Takasaki, where it took all of 5 minutes to collect the bags, leaving us time to look around. Takasaki is a transportation hub, so the station was a little bit more decked out than Nagano station. We found numerous cake places, and even found some gluten-free stuff for Tim, who was stoked to find some desserts he could have. We then made it up to the platform where we decided to stay in the waiting room to keep warm.
A half-hour train trip back to E-Y, then after pointing Tim in the right direction, Mum and I started walking back towards the hotel. We could have just called the hotel and got them to pick us up, but with it only being 1.5km away, we thought a good trundle would do us good. On the way, we found a pharmacy, where in very broken Japanese, I asked for some anti-inflammatory gel. I got that, then we found a small mini-mart next door. First thing we saw, and the only thing we got was strawberries. I love the strawberries here, so any excuse to buy some is good in my books. We then kept walking, finding little curio shops for Mum and Whitney to browse the next day. We got up the hill towards the hotel, and after taking a wrong turn, were soon there.
I wasn't sure what to expect, as we have never been to Yuzawa before, and don't know the hotels or area. But upon walking in, I was surprised. This place was pretty swanky. The reception downstairs has a nice chandelier and an openness about it. Going up the escalator (it's automatic, so turns on when you break the beam) you have the 1st floor. This has the library, where you can sit and read near the fire or use the wifi, the onsens, massage/facial salon, and the mini-museum to the novel Yukikuni (Snow Country), where the writer stayed at this hotel whilst writing it. The breakfast area is also located on this level, along with a theatre. There are more restaurants on the 2nd floor as well, though these don't appear to be always open.
Our rooms were located on the 6th floor (top level), and the view is pretty good. It overlooks Yuzawa Town facing south towards Iwappara and you can see the Kanetsu Expressway and Bullet train lines. The room itself is tradition Japanese style. Tatami mats for the flooring, futons for beds, a komatsu (table with heater underneath), as well as fridge, toilet, bathroom, balcony and decent enough sized TV. Considering the price we're paying for it (6850Y per night each), it's a bargain.
We got ourselves comfortable, whilst Mum and Whitney used the onsen. This places onsen has been here for about 900 years, and the temperature it flows from the ground at is just right. Some of the other onsen we've been in, they've been too hot, but this one I can sit in without feeling like a lobster boiling.
Once everyone was feeling refreshed, we decided to head into town. We were all feeling really hungry, having missed lunch, and we needed to get money out, so the first stop was the 7-11. When we first came to Japan, I didn't like the smell of the 7-11's in Japan, as they had a funny smell because of the food cooking on the counter. But after 4 trips (this is our 5th), it's sort of grown on me. Rather than there only being dodgy hotdogs, and some pies in the warmer, they have things that are filling, but not junk food. Kerry found us there, and said Tim had come down with the cold in a bad way and wanted to know what the dosage instructions for the medicine was. He was also on the hunt for a bar or somewhere where he could get steak, as the Japanese style dinner at the hotel didn't suit his taste bud. He'd later come up to our hotel, as it's no fun being by yourself when the other person is sick and just wants to sleep.
After we had all grabbed some cash out, we decided to walk around the corner to the train station. This one wasn't as fancy as Takasaki, but still had a market attached to it, selling various food and drink items. There was Fuji apples the size of a baby's head (2 for 280Y), as well as various sake sellers (this is a rice growing region) and other bits and bobs. We were hungry though, so we didn't feel like looking, but Zoe was feeling adventurous, so when we stumbled upon an Italian-esque cafe with Pizza and Pasta, that was the decision. I just had a Margarita with some salad and stuff, while Dean for some unbeknownst reason decided to get this pasta that was trout and mushrooms. It's weird, because Dean's not a big pasta fan, or trout fan or mushroom fan, yet just wanted to try it. Turns out it was good, with others who tried it preferring it over the shrimp and anchovy pasta Mum had. Zoe had a ricotta pizza, and the ricotta was fresh and creamy. All up it wasn't a bad deal. We had 4 pizzas, 2 pastas and a few drinks for 9900Y. This is one of the dearer places we've been to, but still wasn't too bad.
After we ate and were satisfied, we now were up to wandering around the market. Zoe ended up getting some nibblys, whilst Paul stayed away. There are these little packaged cakes, almost bite sized, but for Paul, they are like crack. Could eat a whole box by himself, so we just wandered around looking at other things. It was now getting on to 8.30, so after grabbing an ice cream or dessert from the 7-11, we called up the hotel to pick us up.
After we made it back to the hotel, we played around on the wifi for a while, sitting around the fire and relaxing, before all the transit caught up with us and we decided to head for bed.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Hellz yeah!!
So we woke to darkness again. With us getting to bed fairly earlyish most nights, my body seems to want to wake up at 5.30, well before my usual alarm time. At least it gives me time to blog and stuff.
Fernando, the Brazilian help was up already, and the local weather forecast was for snow all day long. And it wasn't wrong. When the sun got up, it showed that it had snowed well overnight, and it didn't stop. While it made visibility poor and temperature cold, it made conditions awesome.
The plan was to meet Tim and Kerry at the Ichinose Diamond lift to go exploring the areas they had found yesterday. After the short day we had yesterday, I was keen to get going as my ankle was feeling better. Dean and I did a few laps of Diamond while we were waiting to get warmed up, then when the guys arrived, we headed over the back to Yakebitai. Some runs through some flat sections, and we made it to the first gondola. We got it up to the top, and headed down a section before Tim and Kerry duck off into the bushes. We followed before they realised they had entered in a lot earlier than they had the day before. With all the fresh snow, it was hard going, as if you slowed or stopped, you fell over and with a stack of snow on your board and bindings, it made it hard to get up. We went a fair way before the guys darted off and I couldn't follow, due to lack of speed or space. I started to head down a gully before I finally caught sight of the guys on the ridge about 30 metres above me. What ensued was about a 20 minute hike up the hill with about 70 degree angle. My lungs were burning, goggles were covered in powder and so foggy I couldn't see out of them, and my energy was all burned up, so my muscles ached. There was only one thing for that. When we got down the bottom we stopped, and grabbed a beer.
After our duck into the woods, the black run we alighted on had some of terrain park on it, and Kerry and Tim were keen to go on again. With me being out of energy, it would have been foolish to try anything, but after a beer and some chocolate, Dean and I caught the gondola to the top of the mountain, while Kerry and Tim caught the short hooded quad to the top of the terrain area. At the top of the 2km gondola, Dean and I headed down, and there was some ungroomed section. Usually I'd be all over it, but with my goggles still a little foggy, and the snow starting to mogul, it was hard going, but it was teaching me to be looser in the legs, so I just rolled with the bumps. We made it down to the terrain section, and Kerry and Tim said they had already gone through once, and caught the lift up again.
This time, I gave it a go. There was a smaller box at the start, which I got some air over. Not massive, but when you are still hurting a little from collisions and muscles are a little tired from hiking, going big probably isn't the best idea anyway. After that, there was a second box with a steeper kicker, and I only had enough speed to make it up, while Tim behind me, after bailing on the first jump had to commando it up the box. Next up there was some box rails which I tried without stacking before the last one was a jump with a gap behind it. I probably didn't have enough speed but I still landed it, before going to the bottom of the lift to give it another shot.
Turns out Tim had over/under rotated on the first jump and landed flat, which hurt his knee. So after another run through the park, we got on the gondola, and started to head back towards Ichinose Diamond.
It was still puking with snow, but with it being close to 1pm and Dean and I not having a proper meal, we were starting to get low on reserves. Tim was also needing to change his goggles and pants, so while they did that, Dean and I headed to the soba place under the right quad lift at Ichinose family. It may sound strange, but in the 4 times we've been to Japan, I've never tried soba. I always thought it would be something I wouldn't like, but I was determined to give it a go. Turns out it's actually rather nice. I got some with an egg cracked into it and just some soy based stock, vegetables and mushrooms, but it was quite tasty. I wouldn't say it was my favourite or anything, but it's not foul and I'd eat it again.
Dean and I sat there for nearly half an hour, before we got tired of waiting. We didn't know whether Tim and Kerry had piked it for the afternoon, but as it was now nearly 2.30pm, we decided to use what time we had left. We caught the lower quad lift up to the top of Ichinose, before skating around the back to Terakoya. With all the snow and the lower visibility, it seemed like a totally different run, but it was harder going, as the powder slowed you down, meaning areas where my girth usually helps me to carry speed without stopping, I slowed down and had to skate or unstrap and walk. Dean also found it harder to keep speed, so he took a little longer to reach the Terakoya quad.
We had planned to do a few runs on Terakoya, as the extra powder would have made it fun, but the wind had started to pick up and with Terakoya exposed to the wind in this instance, we didn't want to risk them shutting the lift down early, so we headed for the Higashi run. It was again really different. On the way down Terakoya, there was a huge gust of wind which whipped up the powder in a flurry and made visibility drop to about a foot in front of you. I was able to keep plowing, but the wind almost stopped Dean dead, which meant he had to try hard to keep his speed for the next bit.
I had never seem Shiga so snowy. The flat run section that links Terakoya to the Higashidate green run was totally different. Although it was groomed that morning, the wind had blown powder over the run, so now there was something akin to a sand dune on the right hand side, (where it drops off) and only a little sliver of flat section. This meant that an area where I would usually cruise through, I was unstrapping and skating. I let Dean get ahead of me, as if it was like this, then he would also need to unstrap at the next section at the top of the green run. I soon caught up and even though I slowed down, nearly to a stop, I was able to hop to where the run starts to drop/slope down and soon, Dean and I were off. Generally, this section is no bother, but with conditions changing on quite a few of the runs, we decided to play it safe and not cut through the trees as much as we normally would. We were still slashing and sending rooster tails up as we flicked on the edges of the runs, but with the run nearly bare (especially compared to the day before), we could take it as fast as we wanted. There were a couple of noob snowboarders that decided to stop right on the corner of a hairpin, which meant Dean and I had to wash off a lot of speed and go around them, but at least they weren't criss-crossing and causing accidents.
We made it down to the bottom of the Higashidate gondola, but the wind seemed to be picking up on this side of the mountain, meaning that the gondola would pause for a few seconds with particularly heavy gusts. With it getting colder and closer to 4pm, we decided to head back towards Ichinose Family.
This was our 4th time in Shiga Kogen, and there was a couple of lift lines either side that were begging to be done. For the past 2 times, I'd been saying to Dean "We have to bomb those lines on the last day", but it hadn't happened. So after heading down the straight down black bit at the top of Ichinose (which was very pillowy, despite being mogulled), we ducked into the trees and found the lift line. It was pretty awesome. On the south/right/Khuls side of Ichinose, it was around knee height in sections. Every flick of the tail caused you to get a face full of powder, but it made it brilliant. We got to the bottom of the main section we wanted to bomb, then we decided to head across to the north side to do Conrad's training run. With the area open for the taking, any little shortcut was taken. We cud the first corner and bounded through the powder. We were slashing the banks at the sides of the run send rooster tails of powder into the air, and generally having a ball. We got the bottom of the green run, where there is a section through the trees that I like to play in. Dean followed me through some of them, but on the second to last one, he missed the needed turn and lost speed. This meant he had to hop a lot to get out/moving again, and he was quickly running out of energy. We sat at the side of the run while he caught his breath, but he only had another run in him. I still had energy for a few more, but Dean and I don't snowboard alone. Especially with conditions the way they were, it wouldn't have been safe. So to finish the day, we decided to catch the lift back up, and bomb the north side lift line. This was the one I especially wanted to do, so after a quick jaunt down the curving black run (which had tons of powder on it), we ducked the rope and headed down.
This one was even better! In sections the powder was thigh high, and although I bailed once at the top, I kept going and got face-fulls of powder with every turn of the board. Dean bailed once, on a steep section and I went passed him, but as we got to the bottom of the line, near where the red run pokes out, I didn't see the drop and took a big bail. I sent so much snow up that I couldn't tell which way was up, but when I got my bearings, I had landed in the only flat section. Dean was coming down, so I warned him to keep to the other side which he did and went around me. I had to commando crawl up (I seemed to be doing a lot of that this day) and started moving with my board on Dean's line.
We met up on the main slope, but with that last bail sucking every last bit of energy out of me, we knew we were done for the afternoon. The first time we've been at Shiga, and not stayed out til last lift on our last day... But what a day.
We flowed past Khuls down the street towards the hotel, but with the cars, we had to unstrap and walk the rest of the way. Stopping out side, we brushed off our boards as best we could before heading in. With our gloves and balaclava's frozen, we sat around outside the lockers letting them thaw near the heaters and enjoyed a well deserved beer. My hood was full of snow from the last bail, so after I had taken my helmet off, Dean grabbed a handful and rubbed it on my head... BRAIN FREEZE. We sat around for a while more, when Paul came down. As this was our last day in Shiga Kogen, we needed to pack the boards up for the bus/train trip to Yuzawa the next day. Dean quickly darted upstairs to let Mum know we were still alive, while I started taking my bindings off my board and put on my apres boots that I had stashed in the locker. By now, every muscled had cooled down and started to ache, so naked men or not, I was going in the onsen.
Dean had arrived ahead of me and was rinsing off as I was lathering up. There was another guy in there, but he was rinsing off as well, so I basically had it to myself. After sitting for about 10 mins, stretching my legs and arms, I hopped out and had a shave as well. I hadn't shaven since last Tuesday, so I was well hairy, but tonight we were heading back to the Nepalese curry house (at Paul's suggestion!), which meant I could place the Nepalese bT I had brought along.
After heading out, we were greeted friendly again, and sat down at the same place as last time, then order our meal. I just had a single curry and naan, which was plenty, seeing it had only been about 3.5hours since my big bowl of soba. The others ordered 2 person feasts and a chicken curry gratin, and after being packed to the gills, we headed back.
It was only 7.30, but with the exhausting day Dean and I had, we couldn't even be bothered packing. So we had some ice cream and fell asleep. At 7.30.... that's crazy.
Fernando, the Brazilian help was up already, and the local weather forecast was for snow all day long. And it wasn't wrong. When the sun got up, it showed that it had snowed well overnight, and it didn't stop. While it made visibility poor and temperature cold, it made conditions awesome.
The plan was to meet Tim and Kerry at the Ichinose Diamond lift to go exploring the areas they had found yesterday. After the short day we had yesterday, I was keen to get going as my ankle was feeling better. Dean and I did a few laps of Diamond while we were waiting to get warmed up, then when the guys arrived, we headed over the back to Yakebitai. Some runs through some flat sections, and we made it to the first gondola. We got it up to the top, and headed down a section before Tim and Kerry duck off into the bushes. We followed before they realised they had entered in a lot earlier than they had the day before. With all the fresh snow, it was hard going, as if you slowed or stopped, you fell over and with a stack of snow on your board and bindings, it made it hard to get up. We went a fair way before the guys darted off and I couldn't follow, due to lack of speed or space. I started to head down a gully before I finally caught sight of the guys on the ridge about 30 metres above me. What ensued was about a 20 minute hike up the hill with about 70 degree angle. My lungs were burning, goggles were covered in powder and so foggy I couldn't see out of them, and my energy was all burned up, so my muscles ached. There was only one thing for that. When we got down the bottom we stopped, and grabbed a beer.
After our duck into the woods, the black run we alighted on had some of terrain park on it, and Kerry and Tim were keen to go on again. With me being out of energy, it would have been foolish to try anything, but after a beer and some chocolate, Dean and I caught the gondola to the top of the mountain, while Kerry and Tim caught the short hooded quad to the top of the terrain area. At the top of the 2km gondola, Dean and I headed down, and there was some ungroomed section. Usually I'd be all over it, but with my goggles still a little foggy, and the snow starting to mogul, it was hard going, but it was teaching me to be looser in the legs, so I just rolled with the bumps. We made it down to the terrain section, and Kerry and Tim said they had already gone through once, and caught the lift up again.
This time, I gave it a go. There was a smaller box at the start, which I got some air over. Not massive, but when you are still hurting a little from collisions and muscles are a little tired from hiking, going big probably isn't the best idea anyway. After that, there was a second box with a steeper kicker, and I only had enough speed to make it up, while Tim behind me, after bailing on the first jump had to commando it up the box. Next up there was some box rails which I tried without stacking before the last one was a jump with a gap behind it. I probably didn't have enough speed but I still landed it, before going to the bottom of the lift to give it another shot.
Turns out Tim had over/under rotated on the first jump and landed flat, which hurt his knee. So after another run through the park, we got on the gondola, and started to head back towards Ichinose Diamond.
It was still puking with snow, but with it being close to 1pm and Dean and I not having a proper meal, we were starting to get low on reserves. Tim was also needing to change his goggles and pants, so while they did that, Dean and I headed to the soba place under the right quad lift at Ichinose family. It may sound strange, but in the 4 times we've been to Japan, I've never tried soba. I always thought it would be something I wouldn't like, but I was determined to give it a go. Turns out it's actually rather nice. I got some with an egg cracked into it and just some soy based stock, vegetables and mushrooms, but it was quite tasty. I wouldn't say it was my favourite or anything, but it's not foul and I'd eat it again.
Dean and I sat there for nearly half an hour, before we got tired of waiting. We didn't know whether Tim and Kerry had piked it for the afternoon, but as it was now nearly 2.30pm, we decided to use what time we had left. We caught the lower quad lift up to the top of Ichinose, before skating around the back to Terakoya. With all the snow and the lower visibility, it seemed like a totally different run, but it was harder going, as the powder slowed you down, meaning areas where my girth usually helps me to carry speed without stopping, I slowed down and had to skate or unstrap and walk. Dean also found it harder to keep speed, so he took a little longer to reach the Terakoya quad.
We had planned to do a few runs on Terakoya, as the extra powder would have made it fun, but the wind had started to pick up and with Terakoya exposed to the wind in this instance, we didn't want to risk them shutting the lift down early, so we headed for the Higashi run. It was again really different. On the way down Terakoya, there was a huge gust of wind which whipped up the powder in a flurry and made visibility drop to about a foot in front of you. I was able to keep plowing, but the wind almost stopped Dean dead, which meant he had to try hard to keep his speed for the next bit.
I had never seem Shiga so snowy. The flat run section that links Terakoya to the Higashidate green run was totally different. Although it was groomed that morning, the wind had blown powder over the run, so now there was something akin to a sand dune on the right hand side, (where it drops off) and only a little sliver of flat section. This meant that an area where I would usually cruise through, I was unstrapping and skating. I let Dean get ahead of me, as if it was like this, then he would also need to unstrap at the next section at the top of the green run. I soon caught up and even though I slowed down, nearly to a stop, I was able to hop to where the run starts to drop/slope down and soon, Dean and I were off. Generally, this section is no bother, but with conditions changing on quite a few of the runs, we decided to play it safe and not cut through the trees as much as we normally would. We were still slashing and sending rooster tails up as we flicked on the edges of the runs, but with the run nearly bare (especially compared to the day before), we could take it as fast as we wanted. There were a couple of noob snowboarders that decided to stop right on the corner of a hairpin, which meant Dean and I had to wash off a lot of speed and go around them, but at least they weren't criss-crossing and causing accidents.
We made it down to the bottom of the Higashidate gondola, but the wind seemed to be picking up on this side of the mountain, meaning that the gondola would pause for a few seconds with particularly heavy gusts. With it getting colder and closer to 4pm, we decided to head back towards Ichinose Family.
This was our 4th time in Shiga Kogen, and there was a couple of lift lines either side that were begging to be done. For the past 2 times, I'd been saying to Dean "We have to bomb those lines on the last day", but it hadn't happened. So after heading down the straight down black bit at the top of Ichinose (which was very pillowy, despite being mogulled), we ducked into the trees and found the lift line. It was pretty awesome. On the south/right/Khuls side of Ichinose, it was around knee height in sections. Every flick of the tail caused you to get a face full of powder, but it made it brilliant. We got to the bottom of the main section we wanted to bomb, then we decided to head across to the north side to do Conrad's training run. With the area open for the taking, any little shortcut was taken. We cud the first corner and bounded through the powder. We were slashing the banks at the sides of the run send rooster tails of powder into the air, and generally having a ball. We got the bottom of the green run, where there is a section through the trees that I like to play in. Dean followed me through some of them, but on the second to last one, he missed the needed turn and lost speed. This meant he had to hop a lot to get out/moving again, and he was quickly running out of energy. We sat at the side of the run while he caught his breath, but he only had another run in him. I still had energy for a few more, but Dean and I don't snowboard alone. Especially with conditions the way they were, it wouldn't have been safe. So to finish the day, we decided to catch the lift back up, and bomb the north side lift line. This was the one I especially wanted to do, so after a quick jaunt down the curving black run (which had tons of powder on it), we ducked the rope and headed down.
This one was even better! In sections the powder was thigh high, and although I bailed once at the top, I kept going and got face-fulls of powder with every turn of the board. Dean bailed once, on a steep section and I went passed him, but as we got to the bottom of the line, near where the red run pokes out, I didn't see the drop and took a big bail. I sent so much snow up that I couldn't tell which way was up, but when I got my bearings, I had landed in the only flat section. Dean was coming down, so I warned him to keep to the other side which he did and went around me. I had to commando crawl up (I seemed to be doing a lot of that this day) and started moving with my board on Dean's line.
We met up on the main slope, but with that last bail sucking every last bit of energy out of me, we knew we were done for the afternoon. The first time we've been at Shiga, and not stayed out til last lift on our last day... But what a day.
We flowed past Khuls down the street towards the hotel, but with the cars, we had to unstrap and walk the rest of the way. Stopping out side, we brushed off our boards as best we could before heading in. With our gloves and balaclava's frozen, we sat around outside the lockers letting them thaw near the heaters and enjoyed a well deserved beer. My hood was full of snow from the last bail, so after I had taken my helmet off, Dean grabbed a handful and rubbed it on my head... BRAIN FREEZE. We sat around for a while more, when Paul came down. As this was our last day in Shiga Kogen, we needed to pack the boards up for the bus/train trip to Yuzawa the next day. Dean quickly darted upstairs to let Mum know we were still alive, while I started taking my bindings off my board and put on my apres boots that I had stashed in the locker. By now, every muscled had cooled down and started to ache, so naked men or not, I was going in the onsen.
Dean had arrived ahead of me and was rinsing off as I was lathering up. There was another guy in there, but he was rinsing off as well, so I basically had it to myself. After sitting for about 10 mins, stretching my legs and arms, I hopped out and had a shave as well. I hadn't shaven since last Tuesday, so I was well hairy, but tonight we were heading back to the Nepalese curry house (at Paul's suggestion!), which meant I could place the Nepalese bT I had brought along.
After heading out, we were greeted friendly again, and sat down at the same place as last time, then order our meal. I just had a single curry and naan, which was plenty, seeing it had only been about 3.5hours since my big bowl of soba. The others ordered 2 person feasts and a chicken curry gratin, and after being packed to the gills, we headed back.
It was only 7.30, but with the exhausting day Dean and I had, we couldn't even be bothered packing. So we had some ice cream and fell asleep. At 7.30.... that's crazy.
Monday, February 11, 2013
Lazing on a Sunday afternoon
Dean and I woke up at our usually time of 5.30, but I was a little sorer than normal. As much as I tried to shrug it off, the collision with the skier had taken away some manoeuvrability. My ankle was still causing me grief, my shoulders were a little sore from jarring them, and I feel like I've generally been beaten with a stick. Yet my body wakes me up at 5.30.
After heading downstairs, I wrote some of my blog, as well as watched a steady procession of people come down to watch the golf. The rest of the family came down at 6.30ish and Paul joined them. Paul's had problems with his knees for the past year or so, getting fluid build up on them. He thought his binding settings may be aggrevating it, so had decided to spend the day taking it easy and keeping off them. We didn't see Zoe at all in the morning, even for breakfast, so she was still hurt from yesterday. Mum and Whitney had decided to take her to the monkey park later on, but I was undecided. Do I take it easy then head out later on, or go now and see how I go? I ended up heading out with Dean, as it's harder to find people later on in the day. We got out earlyish, with less people on the slopes, but with the amount of cars in the parking lot and the fact it's a long weekend here, meant the slopes were going to be packed, at least for the morning.
Dean and I couldn't see Tim and Kerry anywhere, so we decided to do the Red Ichinose run to get started. A skier tracked across Dean's path, despite Dean giving him a wide berth, so we decided to head back up and go across the back to Terakoya. I wasn't feeling it. My legs were too stiff, causing jarring, and my movement wasn't what it should be, but I kept going to give Dean a hand. We did a couple of runs down the various tracks at Terakoya, but it was starting to fill up with people. We headed for Higashidate and had a decent run, despite some powder boarders being a tad reckless on narrow runs. After waiting in the line up for the gondola, we decided to grab a beer at the top of the gondola, as it was now about 10 o'clock, and despite eating a decent sized breakfast, it hadn't given us the energy we needed. After taking about 20 mins to drink it, we headed back out, this time we decided to hike the back hill that Dean, Tim and Kerry had done the previous day. It was tiring work, and we ended up hiking further up than they had yesterday, but to find some nice deep, untracked powder it was worth it.
We weren't feeling any better though, so after getting the short lift up to the ridge, we headed back towards Ichinose, a quick play in the powder between Tanne no mori and Ichinose, but we decided it was enough for now. There were too many people and the conditions weren't absolutely fantastic, so we decided to head in, and see how the afternoon panned out.
After grabbing some gyouza from the ramen place down stairs we met up with Paul, who had come down to get something from the shop, we walked around Ichinose for a while, checking out cars and looking at some of the hotels. This was ok, but we eventually headed back to the hotel. We took Paul for his first onsen, as he was having muscular pain from his back/neck. He felt better afterwards, but we were all feeling sleepy, so headed upstairs for a nap.
That was pretty much our day. We woke up, came downstairs and net bludged, while the kids watched Princess Mononoke.
Mum, Whitney and Zoe eventually returned from their sojourn to the Monkey Park, and we decided to see if we could get in to Victoria restaurant, seeing as how there were far less school kids this time. We got told we could eat there at 6pm, so we got ourselves ready to go. As we were going down the stairs, Tim and Kerry were coming up. So they joined us for dinner, unlike the previous nights. For 2100Y each for the buffet, you can't go wrong. Kerry was craving steak, so he probably at his price of that alone. I tried a bit of everything, as well as steak, but what I thought was a potato croquette, was actually a salmon and cream cheese croquette. The taste was ok, but I can't eat cooked fish without feeling ill, so I started feeling sick later on. Still had a pretty good feed though, and steak would help rebuild my tired and sore muscles.
After getting back to the hotel, Tim wanted to use a computer, as he didn't bring his laptop over. Kerry also wanted to get some photos off his camera, so they used Dean's and my netbooks, while we sat around having drinks of baileys and kahlua that Mum and Kerry had picked up from Donki for about $17. Once they had finished, Kerry decided to head back to their hotel to jump in the onsen, as he had hit a tree during the day's riding and was getting sore. Tim followed, as now it was getting on to 8.30 everyone was getting tired.
I went upstairs to watch some TV, but I lasted about 10mins before I nodded off.
After heading downstairs, I wrote some of my blog, as well as watched a steady procession of people come down to watch the golf. The rest of the family came down at 6.30ish and Paul joined them. Paul's had problems with his knees for the past year or so, getting fluid build up on them. He thought his binding settings may be aggrevating it, so had decided to spend the day taking it easy and keeping off them. We didn't see Zoe at all in the morning, even for breakfast, so she was still hurt from yesterday. Mum and Whitney had decided to take her to the monkey park later on, but I was undecided. Do I take it easy then head out later on, or go now and see how I go? I ended up heading out with Dean, as it's harder to find people later on in the day. We got out earlyish, with less people on the slopes, but with the amount of cars in the parking lot and the fact it's a long weekend here, meant the slopes were going to be packed, at least for the morning.
Dean and I couldn't see Tim and Kerry anywhere, so we decided to do the Red Ichinose run to get started. A skier tracked across Dean's path, despite Dean giving him a wide berth, so we decided to head back up and go across the back to Terakoya. I wasn't feeling it. My legs were too stiff, causing jarring, and my movement wasn't what it should be, but I kept going to give Dean a hand. We did a couple of runs down the various tracks at Terakoya, but it was starting to fill up with people. We headed for Higashidate and had a decent run, despite some powder boarders being a tad reckless on narrow runs. After waiting in the line up for the gondola, we decided to grab a beer at the top of the gondola, as it was now about 10 o'clock, and despite eating a decent sized breakfast, it hadn't given us the energy we needed. After taking about 20 mins to drink it, we headed back out, this time we decided to hike the back hill that Dean, Tim and Kerry had done the previous day. It was tiring work, and we ended up hiking further up than they had yesterday, but to find some nice deep, untracked powder it was worth it.
We weren't feeling any better though, so after getting the short lift up to the ridge, we headed back towards Ichinose, a quick play in the powder between Tanne no mori and Ichinose, but we decided it was enough for now. There were too many people and the conditions weren't absolutely fantastic, so we decided to head in, and see how the afternoon panned out.
After grabbing some gyouza from the ramen place down stairs we met up with Paul, who had come down to get something from the shop, we walked around Ichinose for a while, checking out cars and looking at some of the hotels. This was ok, but we eventually headed back to the hotel. We took Paul for his first onsen, as he was having muscular pain from his back/neck. He felt better afterwards, but we were all feeling sleepy, so headed upstairs for a nap.
That was pretty much our day. We woke up, came downstairs and net bludged, while the kids watched Princess Mononoke.
Mum, Whitney and Zoe eventually returned from their sojourn to the Monkey Park, and we decided to see if we could get in to Victoria restaurant, seeing as how there were far less school kids this time. We got told we could eat there at 6pm, so we got ourselves ready to go. As we were going down the stairs, Tim and Kerry were coming up. So they joined us for dinner, unlike the previous nights. For 2100Y each for the buffet, you can't go wrong. Kerry was craving steak, so he probably at his price of that alone. I tried a bit of everything, as well as steak, but what I thought was a potato croquette, was actually a salmon and cream cheese croquette. The taste was ok, but I can't eat cooked fish without feeling ill, so I started feeling sick later on. Still had a pretty good feed though, and steak would help rebuild my tired and sore muscles.
After getting back to the hotel, Tim wanted to use a computer, as he didn't bring his laptop over. Kerry also wanted to get some photos off his camera, so they used Dean's and my netbooks, while we sat around having drinks of baileys and kahlua that Mum and Kerry had picked up from Donki for about $17. Once they had finished, Kerry decided to head back to their hotel to jump in the onsen, as he had hit a tree during the day's riding and was getting sore. Tim followed, as now it was getting on to 8.30 everyone was getting tired.
I went upstairs to watch some TV, but I lasted about 10mins before I nodded off.
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